One Last Gift
by PaperKat
Summary: Neji never realized that his father had one last gift to give, but does TenTen see it that way? Chapter 5: The story comes to a close as Neji claims his One Last Gift
1. Chapter 1 of 5

I'm still in the market for a beta reader, or two.

I have 3 active fics running, and 2 more possible.

They all feature TenTen heavily, most are TenNeji, in some form or another, one is turning out to be a large multi-chapter ensemble piece with the whole village involved with OCs, but no Canon/OC pairings.

Teulere, I tried to send you a PM, but it doesn't seemed to have worked. If you see this, try contacting me through PM. Maybe it will work better for you.

To anyone whose is interested in beta reading my Naruto fanfiction drop me a line.

The following was meant to be a OneShot, but somehow it morphed as I was writing it, and it ends more open ended then I intended. If there's enough interest, I might consider forcing a plot out of it and continuing it. Now on with the story.

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A Naruto Fanfiction

One Last Gift

One Shot?

By Paperkat

07/15/09

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor I'm I making money from this fanfiction.

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Neji's strength and charka reserves were all but depleted as he sat in the tree outside his bedroom window. He was exhausted, covered in filth and blood and he was certain that he smelled even worse than he felt. Normally his uncharacteristically disheveled appearance after a mission would not have bothered him, but he had never had a wife waiting at home for him before.

He had always known that it would be expected of him to marry once he turned eighteen. He had also resided himself to the fact that a bride would be chosen for him, it was simply expected, and he had guarded his heart and reserved his expectations accordingly. However it had been a bit of a surprise when the day he turned 18 came and went without comment, and just when he almost believed that the Elders had forgotten or did not care, he was informed a month before his nineteenth birthday that his wedding would take place on the day he turned nineteen. Neji had never known until that meeting with Hiashi that he had been betrothed by his father when he was nine.

The news had, and still did, give him mixed emotions regarding the matter. On one hand, his betrothal without his say-so was just another Hyuuga tradition that set his teeth on edge. He almost instinctually wanted to rebel against it, because it was just another aspect of his life that was not under his control. On the other hand, it had been one of his father's last wishes for his son.

Neji had seen the betrothal agreement. It had been a hastily prepared document dated the day his father had died in his uncle's stead. There had been very few specifics other than his father's name, his bride's father's name and the agreement that their children were to be wed. Apparently a bride's price had already been given and accepted, which made the agreement legally binding, unless of course the bride had wished to return it and nullify the betrothal.

His uncle had assured him that his betrothed had been agreeable to the match as long as some, what Hiashi considered to be, minor concessions were made. The one that had involved him directly had been her insistence that Neji be asked if he was agreeable to the betrothal. Her consideration for his feelings and the knowledge that his father had been the one to choose her and not the Elders or his uncle had softened his view of the situation and Neji had agreed to follow through, even before he had found out who she was.

Neji spent a few moments observing his new wife as his tired mind and body tried to assimilate all of the whirlwind changes that had happened in the last month. Though he had agreed to the marriage, and had attempted to mentally prepared himself for the changes that were about to occur, nothing could have prepared him for Hinata unknowingly outing the secret of his bride's identity. If he had not been walking by the main hall at precisely that moment on that day, Neji was quite certain he would have fainted from shock in front of his bride, his family and their guests.

"Isn't it wonderful, Hanabi?" the Hyuuga heiress had gushed as she helped the servants and her sister hastily prepare the main hall for the wedding that was less than a week away at that point in time. "It's like a fairy tale come to life!"

"Dad's going to think it's a nightmare when he realizes that she's serious about not giving up her life as a shinobi," Hanabi had smirked back, and Neji had been surprised that his cousin had been familiar with his bride while he hadn't even asked for her name.

"Didn't I tell you? She accepted a Genin squad assignment."

"Are you serious?" Hanabi had asked, clearly shocked. "She's been killin' herself taking every high ranked Chuunin assignment she could to get promoted to Jounin and all she's going to do with it is train a bunch of kids?"

"Don't be unkind," Hinata had scolded. "We both know that she is an excellent field Jounin, but this way she's still an active shinobi like she wants and she won't be apart of dangerous high rank missions like Father wants. That way they both can keep their pride and everyone is happy. That's the best thing about TenTen. She can always find a compromise were everyone is content."

"That must be why she's the only one that can really get along with Neji."

"Hanabi!"

The rest of the conversation had been lost on Neji. His brain had started to shut down the moment TenTen's name had been mentioned, and his frantically pounding heart had lodged itself in his throat so tightly he had feared he would never be able to speak again. He hadn't bothered to confirm what he had found out with his uncle, Hinata would not have been misinformed about such an important thing.

Neji had found that information out merely four days before he was to be married to his former teammate, and 96 hours had not been nearly enough time for him to process what had been about to happen. Even now, two weeks later, Neji still was not convinced that this was not some kind of dream brought on by the grueling ANBU mission he had just returned from.

How could it be anything but a dream, he asked himself? His father had betrothed him to the little girl that had grown up to be his best friend despite everything he had done to keep her at arm's length. The one woman he had forced himself to only regard as a friend was now his wife, and he had no idea how to react to that.

On top of all this, just to make it that much more interesting, Lady Tsunade had been forced to take him away (along with several of his guests) from his wedding banquet for an emergency ANBU mission before a single drink had been poured, or even a word exchanged between the bride and groom. The only contact their wedding night had afforded them had been when TenTen had appeared at the Hyuuga compound's main gate to grab his hand before he could join his squad that had been waiting for him on the other side of the opening.

TenTen had smiled encouragingly to him when she squeezed his hand. Neji had wanted to say something, but no words had come to mind. Years of caging his heart and words around her had made him mute.

"I promise to return him in better condition than the last time," Shikamaru had assured Neji's new wife with amusement that spoke of a familiarity between them. A familiarity that hadn't sat well with the Hyuuga prodigy at the time. He had heard that TenTen and the Nara had gotten close during a two man squad mission gone wrong, but he had not the opportunity to witness it before then.

"You better, Nara," TenTen had threatened lightly. "Remember, Temari and I are very close."

Any chance there might have been to exchange words between them had been lost when the Hokage herself had arrived to accompany them on their mission. That had been two weeks ago, and Neji was no closer to processing this situation than he had been then, so instead he choose to watch his wife as she moved about their room.

It was not surprising that TenTen was still awake; it really was not all that late. The fireflies had only just ceased their nightly summer show, and the servants were still in the process of snuffing out the main pathway lanterns.

Maybe I should have waited until the house was asleep, Neji thought to himself, and he immediately felt shamed by his small cowardly thought.

What was he afraid of anyway? Certainly not his beautiful, petite wife, who just happened to be fresh and flushed from her bath. What could possibly be intimidating about her tiny bare feet, her baggy boy shorts that barely hung on her hips, her regrettably tightly bound chest or the riot of wet ringlets hanging free down her back?

In a rare show of self-consciousness, Neji pulled his own hair in front of him and grimaced at the thick coating of mud and gore that had dried hours ago into a hard, unsightly, tangled mass.

"Are you planning on sleeping out there, Neji?"

Neji was forced to grab the branch above his head to keep from falling out of the tree. It was testament to how tired he was that he had not noticed he had been seen, or that she had approached the window. Fighting an embarrassed blush, Neji steadied himself before meeting his new bride's eyes.

TenTen was neither smiling in amusement nor smirking in bemusement at having caught her husband peeping in his own window. She simply grinned kindly at him in a way that seemed familiar though he could not place it. She motioned for him to join her inside with a twist of her hand. With a last look at his less than favorable appearance, Neji complied.

"Are you just getting back?" TenTen asked as she held out her hand for him to give her his pack.

"Yes," Neji replied as he tried not to flake filth on the tatami mat beneath his feet. Reluctantly, Neji allowed TenTen to take the satchel slung over his shoulder, and winced when she unceremoniously opened it and started to rummage through it.

They had known each other for over six years now, though it had been over a year since their last shared mission. They had bled together, seen each other at their worst, both physically and mentally, he trusted her with his life, but the thought of her looking for soiled clothing to place outside the room for the servants to attend to, sent a sudden bout of unfamiliar shyness racing up Neji's spine. He snatched the bag back before she could find anything more embarrassing than a pair of muddy socks and muttered something that sounded like an apology as he completed the chore himself.

Rationally he knew that he was being ridiculous. She was his wife now, not just his distractingly attractive teammate which he had expertly deluded himself in to believing was only a friend. This kind of thing was bound to happen recurrently in the future, but by all that was holy he would at least kiss TenTen first before he allowed her to handle his dirty underwear.

"Why don't you put your weapons on the table with mine, and I'll clean them all at the same time."

Startled, Neji whipped his head up to see TenTen disappearing into the adjoining bathroom. It was disturbing that he was so distracted that he had not realized that TenTen had walked away from him. He had spent years of anguish trying to ignore how she made him feel, and now that he was permitted to have those feelings they were too overwhelming to process, even in small doses. Trying not to dwell on it, Neji did as his wife suggested and began to lay out his ANBU equipment on the table.

Without really thinking about it, Neji lined up his kunai with TenTen's kunai, his shuriken with hers and the senbon ended up in a pile, one indistinguishable from another. It did not occur to him until he was unstrapping his sword that he had never seen the table the weapons were on before. A quick glance around the room confirmed that there were several pieces of furniture (including the bed) that had not been there two weeks ago.

The last time he had been in this room, it had held only a writing desk, a simple chest of drawers, two ancient ink scrolls that had belonged to his father resting on stands on a long table against the wall, and a single futon that he would shove into a corner when in use. Now his father's scrolls were unfurled and carefully displayed on either side of an impressive array of expertly crafted, rare and equally ancient weapons that he was certain were TenTen's personal belongings. A second chest of drawers rested against the wall opposite his, but was far more decorative. If he remembered correctly it was a wedding gift from Hanabi. Hiashi's gift had been the massive, low platform bed that was now artfully positioned under the display of weapons and scrolls in the middle of the wall opposite the window he had just entered through.

There were other changes as well. The table that had once held the ancient scrolls, now had various photos and figurines that ranged from eloquent to childish. The walls themselves had what appeared at first glance to be black decorative swirls and patterns on the cream paint, were actually, on closer scrutiny, revealed to be the same type of seals that made up TenTen's summoning scrolls. In short, the very walls themselves could be turned into an arsenal at his wife's slightest whim. Neji was not sure if he should be amused or frightened.

"Neji? Are you sure you're alright?"

Startled for the third time this evening, Neji found TenTen gazing at him worriedly, and again he was struck by how familiar the looked seemed, but he still could not say how or where he had seen it before. She had pulled back her hair into a single braid down her back and he frowned at the loss of intimacy it seemed to represent. When he did not respond, TenTen took hold of his limp hand and pulled him across the room behind her.

"Come on, you'll feel more human after you've cleaned up."

Neji was glad that she had her back to him now as heat blazed across his cheeks when she acknowledged his horrible appearance. He did not dare resist her guidance to the bathroom because she might turn to ask why and find her normally emotionless teammate blushing hard enough to make him dizzy. Or maybe it was the humid air in the bathroom that smelled like TenTen that was making it hard to think, and to breathe, and to basically do anything that required higher brain functions.

She let go of his suddenly clammy hand to effortlessly move around the small room like she had been living here all her life. TenTen made some apologies and gave explanations for the 'mess' she had left behind as she gathered up her personal toiletries and placed them back in what Neji assumed was now 'her' side of the bathroom.

Thankfully his blush had receded by the time she faced him again. TenTen pointed out his toiletries by the washing area and the hot bath she had drawn for him while he had been lost in his daydreaming in the bedroom. She then pulled a clean robe and towel from a cabinet and laid them out near the ofuro. The situation felt so unreal and dreamlike that Neji could only nod his head in agreement when she demanded that he let her take a look at a wound that was apparently on his right shoulder blade and then left the room.

In a daze, Neji removed his once white uniform, vaguely realizing that he was creating quite a mess of dried mud and blood in the process. He tried not to think too hard about the fact that the tiles were cold and damp from TenTen being in this very spot maybe not but an hour ago cleaning her own body. Instead he focused on removing the weeks of filth from his waist length hair while trying to remember where he had seen those looks of TenTen's before.

They were gentle, loving expressions if a little too scripted, like she was editing what she really felt so as not to offend. It nagged at him that he had seen them before, the comforting smile that didn't express too much emotion, the almost mothering, business like manner in which she spoke that reassured without getting too close. It was so frustrating, because he knew he had seen her act this way before, but never for him.

Once the water from his hair ran clean, Neji started in on the rest of his body, being careful of his back now that he could feel the injury TenTen had mentioned. The handful of small cuts he had acquired during the mission were bright red with irritation when he was done, but none of them were bleeding so he ignored them.

In an effort to examine the wound on his back, Neji went to the room's small mirror over the sink and froze in shock. Quite simply he looked like shit, and he couldn't even imagine what he must have looked like before he had washed up. His already pale face was now translucent making it seem as though he was gaunt with hunger and the juin jutsu on his forehead almost seemed to be raised above the surface of his skin, his nearly white eyes were made even more prominent by the dark circles around them and the overall effect was death warmed over.

Other than the curse mark on his forehead, Neji had never been overly concerned with his appearance. His dress and hair were styled according to the clan's preference, he only wore his ANBU uniform when he was on a mission or as directly required by the Hokage (which admittedly had yet to happen as Tsunade-sama could hardly stand to ware her own Hokage robes).

In an attempt to alleviate his frustration and the knots that had collected along his spine in the 14 days he had been chasing ghosts and finding demons instead, Neji eased himself into the bath. After he had adjusted to the temperature of the steaming water, the Hyuuga began to relax and the tension in him started to melt away only to smack him in the face a moment later.

At the same instant the hot water soaked through the protective layers of scab over his wound to stab his shoulder blade with stinging fire, Neji figured it out. Lee… TenTen had always acted that way around Lee, especially on his very 'youthful' days when the slightest kindly gesture would result in bone crushing hugs and ear splitting cries of joy.

Somehow he had been recast from TenTen's mentally stable teammate and occasional confidant, to a beloved brother that she tiptoed around so as to not induce bouts of insane behavior.

When had it happened?

He had to admit that he had spent the last year and a half avoiding her physically only seeing her on occasion and never alone, expecting an arranged marriage in his future, but he certainly never imagined it would be to her. Had all of his half formed and unrealistic excuses for his absence lead her to believe that his mind had slipped its moorings? Or had the increased amount of time she had spent alone with Lee and Gai-sensei warped her into treating everyone as she did the Green Beasts of Kohona?

But he knew that could not be true. He had seen her interact with others in a very normal, TenTen like manner. It suddenly occurred to him that maybe she thought that this was expected of her. Though he would have never believed it of her, maybe she was playing the role of dutiful wife because she thought she had to.

Neji was overcome with the irrational fear that his marriage would be doomed to a lifetime of polite utterances and careful words, just like every other Hyuuga, just like he had expected, and dreaded all of his life.

After all, he still did not know her feelings on the subject of their arranged marriage. He was fairly certain that she had not known of it prior to himself. Neji could not believe that she would have kept such a secret from him all these years. Surely if he had been kept in the dark, so to had been TenTen.

Hiashi-sama had told him that she had agreed to the match, with a few caveats, but what if TenTen's insistence that he be asked if he wanted the betrothal to continue was for another reason? After he had inadvertently found out that TenTen was his bride, Neji had assumed that TenTen was just being mindful of his distaste of everything that was forced upon him by the clan, but maybe she had been hoping he would not agree, thereby releasing her from the obligation.

It was law that if a betrothal was broken by the groom's family then the agreement was simply nullified, but if it was the bride's family then there were several penalties. One was the return of any bride's price given, another was monetary compensation if the bride had been cared for by her future husband prior to their marriage.

His uncle had said that TenTen's bride's price had already been given. TenTen had been living on her own since her mother died shortly before the Chuunin Exams, her father had been killed years before that. It was logical to assume that TenTen's mother had been living off of the betrothal money after his husband's death. With no inheritance after her mother passed away, TenTen had been paying her own way with what she made as a shinobi. She would have never been able to pay back the bride's price no matter how small it was. Since he had not been the one to reject the betrothal, TenTen's only option was to marry him.

Neji left the ofuro, bypassed the towel and wrapped his still dripping body in the robe TenTen had dutifully left for him. The belt was only halfway tied when he burst into his bedroom intending on confronting TenTen on the matter directly. His resolve was greeted by an empty room.

Though the number of furnishings had increased, there simply was nowhere to hide in the room. If the Hokage ever realized how inept he was in keeping track of his own wife, Neji was sure he would be relieved of his ANBU duties by morning. Frustrated and having no outlet, Neji sat at the table of weapons, took up a cleaning cloth and got to work.

As he worked, Neji began to think. What would he do if it had been TenTen's wish for him to end the engagement? An annulment could be asked for, but under what grounds? They were both of legal age, neither of them had spouses elsewhere, they weren't insane (despite Gai-sensei's best efforts), they were not related to each other in any way, and he was not about to claim impotency and the both of them would be forced to go through medical exams if they claimed infertility, the only thing that was left was that they had yet to consummate the marriage. The thought tasted bitter, but Neji would swallow it if that was what TenTen truly wanted.

The opening of the door alerted Neji to TenTen's return. He turned and found her trying to balance a tray with food and drinks, while holding a basket of medical supplies and sliding the door shut with her foot. Being a shinobi she accomplished it flawlessly.

"TenTen..." Neji started but she cheerfully interrupted him.

"Oh, good you're done with your bath." Neji frowned, he knew that she would have immediately seen him upon opening the door and know he was no longer in the bathroom.

"TenTen..." he tried again, but she turned away to place the tray and the basket by the bed before grinning over her shoulder at him.

"We should think about getting a chabudai," she told him brightly. "I was surprised you didn't already have one. When you use to tell me about how many times you ate in your room I had just assumed you did."

She turned back to her task of arranging the food and drink, and he just gaped at her back, as she continued relaying old stories that he already knew seeing as he had been the one to tell them to her. Frustrated by TenTen's deliberate small talk, meant to be polite and impersonal, Neji's hands flew up to his temples where he proceeded to tug at the hair there, hoping that the slight pain would keep him from walking over and shaking his wife. Unfortunately the motion caused real pain when the material of his wet robe scraped across the open wound on his back.

"Did you say something, Neji?" TenTen inquired lightly, but when she turned to look at him the false, dutiful wife disappeared and in its place was the tough as nails konoichi he had known for six years.

"What the hell have you done to your back?!" she demanded, not bothering to wait for him to answer before she came over herself to inspect him.

"There's blood all over your back, Neji! Why didn't you tell me it was that bad?" she demanded again, but like before he didn't get an opportunity to answer. "Never mind, just get on the bed."

Grinning like the idiot he knew he must look like, Neji hurried over to the bed as TenTen disappeared into the bathroom. Feeling more relaxed now that he was on familiar ground (figuratively speaking as he had yet to be in this bed), Neji eased himself face down on the low platform and felt that same dizzy feeling from earlier when he realized the sheets smelled like TenTen just like the bathroom had.

"I can't believe you, Neji. You know how important it is to take care of these things right away," she berated him, coming to sit in the space he had left for her beside him, a basin of water in her hands and several towels thrown over her shoulder.

"Gomen," he said into the mattress, feeling anything but sorry now that TenTen was acting like herself.

"Alright, let me see," she told him in her no nonsense tone that she only used for him. Gleefully, Neji started to comply then he remembered that he was naked under the robe. He paused and looked at his wife uncertainly and TenTen's glare doubled in intensity even as a blush stole across her cheeks.

"Never mind, I've got it."

Faster than Neji would have liked, TenTen leaned across his lower back, having to actually rest her bare midriff against him in order to stretch far enough for a kunai hidden on the opposite side of the bed near the pillow rests. With quick efficient strokes, TenTen cut away the bloodied material of the robe, leaving his right side bare from shoulder all the way down to the belt of the robe. She used the clean sleeve of the ruined material to wipe away blood smears.

"It's not a cut," she informed him, as she tucked a towel against his right side to collect any flowing blood as she worked. "What did you get hit with?"

It took a moment for Neji to push aside the feeling of TenTen sitting tucked up close to his waist, her free left hand resting against his ribcage for balance as she worked to clean the wound with a damp towel.

"Chakra whip," he relayed, remembering how he had realized too late the type of weapon he was up against to stop the hunter-nin from landing the blow. She hummed in acknowledgement.

"That must be why it doesn't hurt as much as it should, considering the damage," she told him matter-of-factually, and Neji fleetingly wondered how large a scar would be left on his back.

"I'm going to see if I can jump start some of the healing."

Neji did not feel inclined to inform TenTen that the Hyuuga had several very skilled medics on staff and in residence for just such an occurrence. He was starting to feel rather relaxed despite the sting of TenTen's treatment and he did not feel like talking or moving.

The long days of little or no sleep, and the constant depletion of his chakra over the last two weeks was closing in on him now that he was home, clean, in a bed that smelled like his wife, while said wife treated him with light strokes and deep, penetrating, circler rubs of her chakra around his injury.

Some foggy part of his brain realized that she was better at this than she had been when they were children. His specific use of the Gentle Fist made it almost impossible for him to change gears and heal instead of harm, and Lee had never been an option, so it had fallen to TenTen to learn and apply the very basic first aid medical jutsus. A smile flitted across his lips remembering how she railed against it, sighting that they were expecting her to do it because she was a girl, but after the first time he had tried a jutsu and inadvertently broke one of Lee's fingers she had relented, but she made sure that they understood that she was doing it out of concern for her teammates and not because it was woman's work.

"When'd you get good at..." Neji's slurred question trailed off when he could not seem to muster the energy to finish it.

"All Jounin with a Genin squad are required to have up to second level medical jutsu proficiency," she explained softly, her movements never slowing or changing their hypnotic rhythm. "Which means Gai-sensei made me learn for nothing."

Neji grinned again, wondering if TenTen had confronted their old sensei over the matter yet. He would love to see the resulting fireworks.

"I like having you as my wife."

TenTen stilled for a moment, but not long enough for Neji to notice in his relaxed, exhausted state and he was asleep before he could hear her reply.

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I thrive on constructive criticism and cookies, not flames.

Kat

This chapter's song, Neji

Magic Touch

Artist(Band):Aerosmith

Somebody better call a doctor, doctor

Or wake me up with a shove

I'm gonna knock you off your rocker, rocker

'Cause I think I'm in love

I tried to get a message to ya

But you walked the other way

I need your Magic Touch, don't you know

I've got a habit and I can't let go

Feel the fire burnin' slow

You better get it while it's hot now babe

'Cause I can't let go

Don't need no wedding with a shotgun, shotgun

So don't you push me too far

Don't try to take me for a fool child, who child

Do you think that you are

You really got it coming to ya

It's gonna come as no surprise

I need your Magic Touch, don't you know

I'm after you and now I can't let go

Take it easy, take it slow

You better get it while it's hot now babe

'Cause I can't let go

You never know what you got

Till they take it away

I'm comin' ready or not

Gonna get you some day

I need your Magic Touch, don't you know

I'm after you and now I can't let go

Feel the fire, burnin' slow

I got a habit and I'm back for more

Your Magic Touch, don't you know

I'm after you and now I can't let go

Feel the fire, burnin' slow

You better get it while it's hot now babe

'Cause I can't, can't, can't let you go


	2. Chapter 2 of 5

By popular demand.... One Last Gift is now a multi-chapter! Not sure where this is going since I didn't intend for it to be more than a OneShot, but let's just see.

Also by popular demand.... Chapter 2 is in TenTen's POV!

Amaya-Gaara-4-ever-and-always... Thanks for the catch in the Disclaimer. The ones right in your face are always the hardest to find!

Dreaming-of-Serenity and fmorgana-bluenausicaa.... It looks like you'll be getting your wish, but not in this chapter. :)

SMOKe13.... I hope that this chapter clears some things for you, but honestly I didn't intend to reveal everything. As for the actual wedding ... well, they're actually very boring (especially traditional Japanese ones). Now the wedding night, that would have been a good read. :)

Anzer'ke... I'm afraid, very afraid ::grin:: But, I love it!

On with the story!

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A Naruto Fanfiction

One Last Gift

2/?

By Paperkat

07/23/09

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor am I making money from this fanfiction.

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TenTen calmly waited as Hyuuga Hiashi approached her. She refused to show any of the anxiety that was making her heart pound and her fingertips sweat. She refused to be shamed by her dirt smudged face and her near threadbare clothes. She knew why he had come. Neji had made his choice, and no matter what he had decided she knew it would change her life forever.

"He has agreed," Lord Hiashi informed her. The Hyuuga Clan leader's face did not betray his thoughts on the matter, but she felt his sensor. Whether it was for her or for his nephew she couldn't tell.

"Neji, wants to marry me?" she asked in astonishment, her hand moving to her chest to hold her heart in place. She had hoped, but…

"He does not know it is you he is to wed."

Hiashi's cold statement interrupted her blissful thought, like falling into an icy river on a summer day.

"You didn't tell him?" TenTen demanded, her ire made her bold as she glared at the intimidating man in white. She had assumed that Neji had been informed of their betrothal the same way she had.

"He did not bother to ask," he replied with a shrug. The casual gesture did not fit him.

"It does not matter to him," Hiashi continued cruelly, dropping all pretense of civility.

TenTen felt her heart stop beneath her hand as the words circled and churned inside her head.

It doesn't matter to him.

TenTen's vision dimmed and the world faded around her, leaving her in suffocating darkness.

Doesn't matter.

TenTen tried to center herself, she tried to swim to the top, but thick, unforgiving ice covered the surface and the weight of his words kept pulling her down. Why hadn't he asked? And the expressionless voice of her husband answered.

"I do not bother with inconsequential things."

--

TenTen snapped out of her dream, but years of training kept her from crying out like she wished to. It took her less than a second to orient herself even with her eyes still closed. After two weeks she had not gotten use to waking in this new bed, but at least the nightmare wasn't as intense this time.

_"I like having you as my wife."_

TenTen let a small sigh escape her, holding Neji's half mumbled words from last night like a shield against the dream. At least he 'liked' her and wasn't indifferent to her as she had feared. She could work with 'like'. She had used less when they had first met, and she had become his friend, she could do so again, after all she had an entire lifetime. Knowing that the day needed to be started, TenTen opened her eyes and observed her new world with its new fixture.

The room was dark, but the predawn moon was still bright enough outside the window to cast a glow across the bed. In the dim light, TenTen could see Neji sleeping just an arm's length away, and from what she could tell he had not moved all night long. She knew from the many nights they had spent on missions together as children that, as a rule, Neji didn't sleep on his stomach. Not only did it expose his blind spot, but it slowed his response time, so for him to remain face-down meant that she had not overestimated how tired he had been the night before.

Neji had returned from his mission bedraggled, exhausted and half asleep but never once had his perfect Hyuuga mask slipped. He had hardly spoken while she had tried to make him comfortable upon his return, and his all-seeing eyes had assessed their room without comment or emotion. She had spent hours arranging and rearranging everything in their room in an attempt to make it perfect for him, but his blank expression gave nothing away, even to her.

The same strength-draining melancholy that had enveloped her when she had watched Neji leave her behind to go on the ANBU mission on their wedding night was back, and just as debilitating. There had once been a time when they would share a conspiring grin or calculating look, and no words needed to be said because they both knew what was on the other's mind, but those days were gone. Neji's rapid advancement through the ranks had left little time for old childhood companions that had fallen behind years before.

TenTen had felt a traitorous glimmer of hope that their friendship was not completely dead when she had been told that Neji had agreed to continue with their betrothal, and she had foolishly thought that maybe, just maybe, there was something a bit more between them than old childhood memories, but she had been wrong, so very wrong.

TenTen clinched her jaw and looked away from the shadow of Neji's face to try to dispel the sudden rush of anger she felt. Bitterly she remembered how she had allowed herself to be caught up in Hinata and Hanabi's enthusiasm to turn what had started as a very simple, very private ceremony into an actual wedding celebration.

She had even been a blushing, nervous bride that morning wrapped tightly in her formal kimono, her hair traditionally styled including that Kami forsaken hat to hide her 'horns'. A sick feeling rolled in TenTen's stomach when she thought about how foolish she would have felt if she had not found out about Neji's indifference to whom his bride was before the actual ceremony.

She had been so anxious when the sisters had left her alone to oversee some last minute arrangements, that TenTen had snuck out of the room they had left her in to scout out the Hyuuga main hall. She had never expected to run across two of the Hyuuga Elders, and she certainly had never expected to find them speaking about her.

_"I know that he was unfortunate enough to be born to the lesser house, but to be wed to an orphan of an empty clan is most advantageous."_

_"Yes, with no real clan to lay claim to their children they can be brought into the Main House by pure virtue of their mother's title, even if it is an empty one. No one would be able to protest it."_

_"It is no wonder that Neji agreed to the match. It was a wise decision."_

_"Did you not know? He did not care enough to even bother to ask about his betrothed. Neji considers such things as inconsequential, but it is fortunate for us that Hiashi-sama does."_

Their words had stabbed her in the chest and she hadn't even known her heart was an open target to be struck. Until that moment, TenTen had never realized how much hope and how much of her heart she had wrapped up in Neji seemingly wishing to marry her.

She had slipped back into the room from which she had come, and she had literally been on the open windowsill, wedding kimono and all, ready to flee as far from the Hyuuga compound as she could, then she had spotted Neji. As always, the mere sight of him had the power to captivate her.

He had been fully dressed in his wedding finery and meditating under a tree, just as he always had been when they were genin and chuunin. In that moment she realized that while an untroubled Neji was a creature TenTen thought she would never see, a content Neji was just as rare and welcomed sight.

Neji may not have chosen her by name, but he had made a choice of his own free will, and from what she had seen from that window, it brought him some measure of peace, a peace that had been within her power to destroy in that moment.

She had known that if she had have left him then, just hours before the wedding, it would have been a blow to the one thing of his that had always remained intact despite his clan, his pride. Neji may not have cared who he had been marrying, but to be left at the alter would have been devastating, especially by such a minor character like herself.

TenTen had spent most of her formative years watching and guarding his blind spot, only this time she had been protecting him from herself. His blind spot had been laid out before her and it had been her choice to strike it or protect it, but she had known, as she knew now, that there really had been no choice at all.

She was calmer now that she had placed the blame of her bruised ego back on her shoulders where it belonged and away from Neji. After all, Neji was just being Neji, doing what he must for the clan no matter what it might cost him personally, while she had been the one to selfishly take this last chance, hoping that she could place herself at Neji's side. TenTen pulled her knees up and used her last few free minutes before she had to meet her genin team, just marveling in the creature that was now her husband.

The light of the dawning sun was starting to stretch across Neji's back, illuminating the wound on his shoulder. It was an angry red, but she had worked hard to close the skin so that there wouldn't be a threat of infection. She wasn't skilled enough in medical ninjitsu to leave his back unblemished, but at least it wouldn't be a true scar, just an unnatural pink mark on his pale skin. TenTen grinned when she wondered if maybe her husband would have preferred a more traditional, jagged, 'manly' scar instead.

She was glad that she had combed through Neji's wet hair the night before. She had secured it with a few braided twists and a hair tie at the end after he had fallen asleep, or more accurately, passed out with exhaustion. If Neji had any vanity, it was his hair, though he would never admit it. His face was still bathed in the shadow of his shoulder, but she didn't need to see it to know that he was at complete rest. Even when meditating, Neji was never this relaxed and liquid. TenTen supposed the difference was that Neji actually felt safe within the walls and gates of the Hyuuga compound, because outside of them he had never let his guard down to this degree.

When the sun finally reached far enough that it shown in her eyes, TenTen knew it was time for her to leave. She had placed the bed in the middle of a wall so that neither one of them had to climb over the other to get out. It had taken a concerted effort for her to sleep comfortably without a wall at her back, but last night, for the first time in two weeks, TenTen had fallen asleep without any effort at all, just knowing that Neji was safe and well.

With ease born of familiarity, TenTen took apart the single braid down her back, split her hair into halves and used the pins and ties that were already in her hair to make the buns she was known for. It really was silly that she still styled her hair this way, she was married now and it was a style only meant for little girls, but she just didn't feel like TenTen without them. On the day after her wedding, she had attempted to wear her hair in a simple braid and no one recognized her, except for Shino, but then again, Shino had been purposely looking for her and she suspected it was his kikaichuu that had found her not the Bug Wielder himself.

By the time she made it to her dresser, her hair was secured, and her hands were free to gather her clothes for the day. The one thing that had changed and stuck since her marriage was her choice of clothing, or at least the clothes she wore when training her genin squad. Her simple loose shirt and pants were just not practical for carrying all that she needed for each of her students, so she had given in and changed to the regulation Jounin uniform, minus the long sleeved shirt under the vest. In her opinion, she kinda looked like Hatake Kakashi with hair buns, but whatever got the job done was fine with her.

It took her less than five minutes in the bathroom to splash some water on her face, brush her teeth and change. TenTen stopped briefly by the window to pull a sheer curtain across the opening in hopes that it would keep the light from waking Neji sooner than he needed to. With her backpack in hand, she silently slid out the door. Amazingly still on schedule despite daydreaming about her husband, TenTen stopped in the kitchen to grab something to eat and drink, and literally ran into Hyuuga Hiashi.

In reflex, TenTen caught the teapot while Hiashi rescued his cup and the tray from hitting the floor. With an almost choreographed effort, the two of them returned all the items to their original state without spilling a drop of tea.

"I am so sorry, Hiashi-sama," TenTen apologized, a blush burning across her whole face as she nervously adjusted the pot and the cup so that they were exactly as they had been on the tray before she had slammed into the Hyuuga Clan leader.

Despite what her nightmare this morning had shown, TenTen had never been completely alone with Neji's uncle before this moment, and at this precise moment Hiashi was only in his sleeping robe adding to TenTen's intense embarrassment. At least the first time they had met he had been flanked by his daughters, both of which TenTen had been friendly with before that meeting, and it had been a comfort to see that both Hyuuga heiresses had been just as surprised as she about her betrothal to Neji.

"Could you repeat that Otosan?" Hanabi had asked as Hinata had blinked owlishly at the announcement.

Hiashi-sama had simply wiped the tea from his hand that his youngest had expelled out in her surprise before he had repeated himself.

"I simply wish to know if TenTen-san intends to honor the marriage contract between herself and Neji."

"Did you know about the betrothal?" Hinata had asked, very nearly interrupting her father, her almost colorless eyes just as wide as TenTen had thought hers must have appeared.

"No, I..." TenTen had paused feeling blindsided and unsure of her footing. She hadn't spoken to or seen Neji in months and then suddenly his uncle was discussing marriage between the two of them? Feeling adrift, she had shifted her focus to Hiashi's unwavering stare. Far from being intimidated by the emotionless Hyuuga lord, TenTen pulled the same calm from that gaze she had from Neji's pale eyes in her childhood.

"I apologize Hiashi-sama, but this is the first I've heard of this, and I don't want to seem distrustful, but what proof do you have?"

Hiashi had not seemed offended by her question and had simply handed a scroll to Hinata to give to her.

"I can understand your need to look into this matter and confirm what I have told you, however, the Elders wish to have this matter resolved before Neji turns 19 in two months. Several alternatives have already been chosen for him should you wish to dissolve this contract."

"Chosen for him?" TenTen had questioned with more sensor leaking out in her tone than she had intended.

Though they had not been close for quite some time, and even when they had been teammates, their non-combat relationship had only extended to a casual friendship, TenTen had felt an immediate and intense protective surge wash over her.

She had remembered quite vividly how cold and bitter Neji had been in the beginning as a result of the Clan's highhandedness. Even though she had only witnessed it from afar, Neji had seemingly been more at peace with his life in the last year, and TenTen knew that something like an arranged marriage would erase whatever emotional progress her former teammate had made, and she refused to be apart of it.

"As the head of my family, I of course reserve the right to assess the validity of this betrothal and its current benefit to my clan and to make appropriate amendments if they are warranted."

It had been an empty threat, because what power did she really have? The title of clan leader had been bestowed to her upon her father's death since she was his only child, but her 'clan' had but only one member left, herself. It was an empty title and useless for anything but her pride, but it did afford her some rights that even the powerful Hyuuga clan could not deny her.

She had prepared herself for Hiashi's contempt for openly challenging him, or at the very least, distaste of her suddenly superior attitude, instead she had witnessed the very slightest upturn of the left side of his mouth, the equivalent of a Hyuuga male grin.

"It is your right, but I ask that your response be forthcoming, as time is a luxury that is no longer afforded to us."

"You are not remaining here today?" Hiashi asked, forcing TenTen out of her memories and into the present, the Hyuuga lord seemingly ignoring the accident from just a second ago.

"I, ah…" TenTen was once again at a loss as what to say. Hiashi's tone wasn't a reprimand exactly, but there seemed to be a hint of disappointment in his voice, like he had been expecting something different and was dissatisfied by what he had received.

Hiashi had never been anything but courteous to her in all their interactions. Even on that first meeting two months ago, he had sent a formal request for an audience with her, and had left the invitation open enough that she could have refused without disrespect. Compared to Neji's abrupt attitude it was flattering to be treated so genteelly, even if Hiashi was only doing it out of good manners.

Their second meeting had been very similar to the first, only that Hinata had been away on a mission and only the Hyuuga Clan leader and his youngest daughter had been in attendance. TenTen had laid out her conditions, certain that they would cause a stir and she hadn't been far off the mark. Hanabi had once again spewed out her tea with surprise when Lord Hiashi had agreed to the amendments to the betrothal with almost no fight at all.

Neji's uncle had agreed to put into writing that TenTen was to maintain her title as clan leader, and consented that her children would carry her clan name along with the Hyuuga, which apparently had worked in the Elders favor if what she had overheard in the hallway before the wedding was true.

Hiashi had also relented, with a small amount of resistance, to let TenTen continue her life as a shinobi, but in counter, TenTen had also agreed, with some embarrassment, that if she were to become pregnant that she would remove herself from that life style for no less than two years upon conceiving. Her final condition, the one that she had been certain would be refused, had been agreed to instantly.

Hiashi had assured her that Neji would be allowed to chose if he wished to continue with their betrothal, but what TenTen had never counted on was the Hyuuga prodigy caring so little for whom he married that he never asked for her name. Of course the blame wasn't Neji's alone. Hiashi could have volunteered her identity, or flat out told Neji to whom he was betrothed, but for some reason Hiashi had not seen fit to divulge that information to his nephew, just as now he didn't seem inclined to actually say what he wanted to say.

"I have obligations to my squad, Hiashi-sama," TenTen reminded him, squaring her shoulders, waiting for his next move. She was not giving up being a shinobi until she absolutely had to, and she had signed documents to back her up if need be.

"And what of your obligations to your husband?"

TenTen had not been prepared for that particular attack and stared stupidly at Hiashi. What did he mean obligations to her husband? She had practically bathed and dressed him, she had healed him, fed him (even though he never actually ate), she had taken care of his uniform and weapons before she had gone to bed herself, and she had even changed the sheets to the bed that were only two days old while he had been bathing! What else did they want?! She was about to bring the arrogant Hyuuga up to speed concerning all of her obligations when he smiled at her! An actual full smile that chased at least ten years from Hiashi's features.

"Ah, I see," he told her, nodding his head. "I will speak to Neji in regard to this matter."

Now completely lost to where the conversation had gone to, TenTen just gaped at Hiashi's back as he left the kitchen, tray in hand. What in all the hells was that about?! TenTen asked herself as she wandered around the room collecting a few food items and a bottle of water, as she had originally intended when coming to the kitchen. Deciding to chalk it up to the weirdness that was the Hyuuga way of life, TenTen hurriedly started stuffing her supplies into her backpack. She turned the corner and ran directly into someone else.

"Whoa, hold up there TenTen, what's the rush?"

In front of her, his left hand on her shoulder to help her balance after stumbling into him and the other hand holding on to something slung over his shoulder was Nara Shikamaru.

"What are you doing here?" TenTen asked, purposely ignoring his rhetorical question. Knowing that Shikamaru had been on the same mission as Neji, TenTen took a quick assessment of his overall condition. Other than a bandage on his right forearm and a scrape across his nose, Shikamaru just looked pretty much the same as Neji had, dead tired.

"Ironically, looking for you," he told her with a lazy smirk and half lidded eyes. TenTen had originally assumed that Shikamaru had returned to Kohona at the same time as her husband, but by his slightly rumbled clothes and eyes bruised by lack of sleep, she wondered if by being the squad captain he had not been afforded a full night's rest because of his duties.

"What do you need me for?"

"First of all, I don't know whether I should kill you or just strangle you."

When TenTen only returned his comment with a blank stare Shikamaru shook his head and grinned.

"Temari was waiting for me when I got home last night," he said in both explanation and accusation, as he swung what he had been holding over his shoulder in front of him. Secured by crimson rope around their ends and hourglass shaped middle was a set of three watermelon sized gourds. TenTen knew what they were immediately.

"She found them!" TenTen explained with glee as she took the offering, grunting under the unexpected weight of the gourds. Shikamaru had held them so easily by two fingers that she had thought they would be much lighter.

"She wouldn't tell me what their for," Shikamaru told her leadingly, openly showing his interest.

"That would be because she doesn't know what they're for," TenTen informed him as she let the large, hard shelled fruit rest on the ground, returning his grin with one of her own.

Technically, TenTen had tried to tell Temari her plans for the gourds, but the Sand-nin had lost interest in the conversation before she could fully explain. Temari had simply cut her off; promising to find what TenTen was looking for in Suna.

A pair of servants rushed by them on their way to the kitchen forcing Shikamaru to let go of her shoulder and brace his left forearm against the wall next to TenTen's head in order to make enough room for them to pass.

"You know I don't like it when my girls keep secrets from me."

"Ino has a secret?" TenTen asked with mock innocence and blinked prettily when Shikamaru glared at her. TenTen had always found the ANBU squad captain incredibly fun to verbally spar with.

"TenTen," the shadow ninja growled in annoyance that was purely play-acting. "Is that any way to treat your husband?"

TenTen glared heatedly at the reference to their one disastrous mission together. It was a little known piece of information that he used quite often to get a reaction out of her. Unfortunately, because of her 'talk' with Hiashi earlier, TenTen took it harder than she normally would have.

"According to some around here, I suck at being married."

All playfulness left Shikamaru's tone when his eyes soften just a bit in sympathy.

"I don't know, I thought you made a pretty good wife," he told her with a careless shrug.

"Thanks," TenTen mumbled as she picked up the gourds from the ground and slung them over her shoulder, preparing to leave. When she looked back up, Shikamaru was no longer looking at her, or slumped against the wall next to her. Curious to what had captured the Nara's attention so completely that he seemed ready to do battle; TenTen glanced over her shoulder to find Neji staring back at them.

"TenTen, aren't you late for your squad meeting?" Hanabi asked when she came from behind her statue still cousin, her long brunette hair still a little rumbled with sleep.

"Ah, shit!" TenTen exclaimed as she rebalanced the awkward weight of the gourds and her backpack, and prepared herself to run to the window down the hall. If Hanabi was up, that meant it was even later than she realized, and if she was that late, TenTen couldn't take the time to use the front door.

"See you guys tonight," TenTen called over her shoulder to her husband and her cousin-in-law. She grabbed Shikamaru's arm at the elbow before she completely passed him by.

"Thanks for delivering these Shika," she thanked the silent man hurriedly, never noticing the ominous silence she left in her wake.

---------------------

I thrive on constructive criticism and cookies, not flames.

Kat

This chapter's song, TenTen

Talk To Me by Blue Fountain

It doesn't matter what you say

Cause it's written on the wall

There's no need to exaggerate

But I think this time we spoiled it all

We were heading for at spin

Where we were bound to win

We were dynamite

We would scandalize

And outrage and mesmerize

Others stopped where we'd begin

We were bound to win

But eventually

It turned out to be

A fantasy

You say you wanna walk with me

But you're always on the run

You're sure you wanna talk to me?

'Cause I say one word and then you're gone

Walking in circles around the core

Tell me what it is

That you fear, what makes you withdraw?


	3. Chapter 3 of 5

---------------------------

A Naruto Fanfiction

One Last Gift

3/?

By Paperkat

08/28/09

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor am I making money from this fanfiction.

------------------------------

Neji moved almost before he was awake. The presence at his back was unknown to him, and the primal urge to defend his home and his mate had him out of the bed and across the room before the sheet that had been laid across his lower half had a chance to fall back to the mattress. The intruder was pinned high against the wall by Neji's left forearm, while the Hyuuga prodigy's right arm was drawn back to deliver a killing blow to his enemy's heart.

"Where is TenTen-sama?" the child dangling from Neji's arm demanded with glaring white eyes.

It was more the surprise at hearing the pure venom in the child's voice than realizing he had come too close to killing a Main House member that had frozen Neji where he stood.

The gender of the clan member he had pressed against the wall was completely undeterminable. While the general shape of the frame beneath the unisex Hyuuga robes seemed more masculine, everything else screamed feminine. Feathery bangs framed a round angelic face, while the bulk of the child's dark hair was confined in a think braid that fell to the waist, the child's hitai-ite was tied around the neck the same way that Hinata would wear hers. The young Hyuuga's unmarked forehead wrinkled in a scowl before attempting to kick Neji in the crotch. The blow was easily blocked despite the amount of enthusiasm and determination given to the move.

"What have you done with TenTen-sama?!" Without waiting for a reply, the child grabbed a hold of the older Hyuuga's forearm and hoisted itself up to yell very loudly over Neji's shoulder. "TenTen-sama!"

Though his Byakugan was not activated, Neji felt another unfamiliar presence at his back, but this time he was awake enough to realize it was not a threat.

"Would you shut it, Hisoka? Sensei told you not to call her that."

Despite now knowing the child's name, Neji still could not determine if he held a boy or a girl suspended against the wall. Hisoka was an uncommon name, but within the Hyuuga clan it was used for both males and females. Neji wondered if this child's parents had chosen the name before birth, because the creature he held in front of him was anything but 'reserved'.

"No one asked you, Aki-chan," the androgynous youth sneered the obviously unwanted nickname, just before taking in a deep breath for another yell. Neji immediately covered the child's mouth with his free hand, but a muffled 'Sensei-sama' managed to escape anyway.

"She said not to call her that either," the boy in the window retorted with a sad shake of his head.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Neji demanded as he let the child under his arm drop down to the floor.

As soon as the young Hyuuga's feet touched the ground, it was in motion, moving around Neji with impressive speed and agility to burst into the adjoining bathroom. Neji was a little disturbed that the child felt familiar enough with his wife to walk into, not only her bedroom unannounced and through the window, but their private bathroom as well.

"The dork over there thinks he's TenTen-sensei's personal bodyguard or something," the blonde boy dubbed Aki-chan replied from his crouch in the window.

With his dark green eyes smiling, the boy held out his free hand that was not holding onto the window frame. It was a friendly invitation for a hand shake that Neji took hesitantly only because he had never had someone so young be seemingly unaffected by his naturally foreboding presence.

"The name's Nara Akihiko, by the way. I'm the sane one in our squad, other than Sensei of course."

If the boy was related to Shikamaru, he bore little resemblance to Neji's squad captain from his coloring to his constant, cheerful smile. After shaking the boy's hand, Neji took a quick glance at the photographs he had noticed last night on the long table near the window. Sure enough TenTen's genin squad picture was sitting right next to their own Team Gai photo.

The two boys that had invaded his room were both smiling, Hisoka was obviously very pleased with himself, and Akihiko just looked genuinely happy. Between the two male genin Neji had just met, was their third academy graduate. The photograph seemed to have a dark smudge across the girl's scowling face, but it was very clear that she was not nearly as pleased to be there as her teammates. TenTen stood behind them, and all that could be seen of her was her loose cream-colored top. She was grinning at the camera with a hand on each of the boys' shoulders.

"Come on idiot, we're going to be late," Akihiko cheerfully called out to his teammate. "Sensei and Mika are probably already there waiting for us."

"Sensei-sama would not have left without me. We always walk together," Hisoka replied haughtily when he flounced back into the bedroom.

"Hisoka, you don't walk with TenTen-sensei, you stalk her from the rooftops," the sandy haired boy corrected. "She probably was walking out the front door while you were climbing the tree to peek in her window."

The young Hyuuga sulked and mumbled under his breath that he was 'observing' Sensei-sama, as he went to join his teammate at the window. Before either boy could leave, Neji snatched them both up by their collars and forced them to turn and look at him.

It was bad enough that he had been awaken from a perfectly pleasurable dream to find that not only was his wife not in their bed with him, but also a pint sized Main Branch Hyuuga was braking into his bedroom.

"Exactly how long have you two been spying on my wife?" Neji demanded with a hard shake that made the boys both cry out in protest.

"Don't put me on the same block with him," Akihiko defended, holding his hands up in surrender. "I'm just here to try and make sure he says out of trouble, which is working brilliantly by the way."

Neji ignored the Nara's sarcastic tone, suitability convinced that he was not a repeat offender. When Hisoka failed to answer, Neji attempted to glare the information out of the boy.

"I don't have to answer to you," the little Hyuuga told him smugly.

It took everything Neji had not to shake the teeth loose of the snotty little Main House brat in his hand. The boy was of course correct that he did not have to answer to a Branch House member, but Neji could not remember a time when it had been so blatantly shoved in his face. It also did not help that Akihiko let out a quiet 'Oh, harsh' upon hearing his teammate's disrespectful words.

Neji took a moment to calm his breathing before he spoke again, using a different indirect tactic.

"TenTen is your Sensei and you will show her proper respect by not invading her privacy or 'observing' her outside of lessons. Is that understood?"

Akihiko cheeks flushed a little, but he just nodded his acceptance. Hisoka looked like Neji and just accused him of murdering TenTen's pet kitten, and she did not even have a kitten! Neji did not think that the boy's colorless eyes could look any more feminine, until the tears started to fall.

"Now you've done it," Akihiko grumbled and suddenly Neji could see Shikamaru's resemblance in the boy's disgruntled grimace and crossed arms as he hung from Neji's grip.

"TenTen-sama is kind and beautiful and wonderful and kind…"

"You said that already," the blonde cut in, but it did not slow Hisoka any.

"…and she deserves better than a mean, cruel, heartless person like _you_!"

Both Akihiko and Neji gaped at the other boy's boldness, but it did not end there. With the Hyuuga prodigy temporarily stunned, Hisoka struck a pressure point in Neji's arm, which forced him to let go of his grasp on the boy's robe. In the same motion, the young Hyuuga flipped backwards, spring-boarding off of Neji's stomach and out the window. Not expecting the attack, Neji fell backwards still holding Akihiko firmly by the collar, dragging the boy with him.

"You know, he really isn't that bad around Sensei. In fact, he hardly talks at all," the remaining boy told him as he brushed imaginary dirt from his pants. "But you did go and marry his one 'true love' so I guess I can see why he hates you so much."

"He can't be more than twelve," Neji tried to reason, as he lay on the floor, trying to get the feeling back in his arm. What prepubescent boy had a 'true love' anyway? But then Neji remembered a quite similar statement being made by a certain green spandex-ed teammate and he thought he might be sick.

"He's ten actually," Akihiko supplied and Neji just stared at him, a ten-year-old academy graduate was not unheard of but still unusual.

"Hisoka's is a little bit of a genesis except he's got no Byakugan," Akihiko clarified.

"There is no such thing," Neji automatically corrected, flexing his fingers against the lingering tingle. All Hyuuga born with white eyes had Byakugan, just not all of them were necessarily proficient at it.

"Oh, he can do the whole vein popping out the side of his head thing, but what he sees isn't what the rest of you see. That's why he's with us."

Neji desperately wished he had been more curious about TenTen's genin squad when he had accidentally overheard Hinata, but he had had other things on his mind. Like the fact that he had been going to be married to his best friend in less than a week.

"What do you mean, 'With us'?" Neji questioned.

With a flourish, Akihiko came to his feet and bowed like the circus performers Neji had once seen in Suna.

"We are Team Misfit."

The boy straitened up and pointed to his own chest.

"I can't concentrate long enough to hold a shadow to save my life," the green eyed child thumbed over his shoulder in the direction of the window. "Hisoka can only see charka on the outside of things, not on the inside, and Mika is an Aburame."

"There are no Aburame konoichi," Neji stated as a matter of fact.

"Not until Mika," Akihiko agreed. "Oh, she doesn't have the kikaichuu holes, because being a girl and all her clan never put the bugs in her to begin with, but they hang around her anyway. I think the clan let her go to the academy just to get away from the Swarm."

Neji suddenly remembered the 'smudge' on the photograph over the girl's face and realized it had not been a defect in the photo at all, but a cloud of kikaichuu circling the unfortunate konoichi's head.

"How did all of you graduate?" Neji asked, not out of malice, but of true curiosity.

The boy only shrugged, the smile slipped from Akihiko's face and Neji regretted his blunt question, but the Nara recovered quickly.

"I better be going or I really will be late," the child said with more reserve than he had at any other point in their conversation, but the warm smile was back with its impish edge as Akihiko cartwheeled himself back onto the window and gave Neji a salute. "Be seein' ya around, Neji-san!"

As Neji watched the boy disappear out the window, the Hyuuga prodigy had to wonder if blonde hair and inexplicable sunny dispositions went hand-in-hand. Then he remembered the Fifth Hokage, Temari and Ino and revised the idea to only include blonde males.

Frustrated on how this morning was progressing so far, Neji hurriedly prepared for the day. He had planned on speaking with TenTen first thing, the thought occurring to him in those finally moments before sleep. He had to know her feelings regarding their marriage. He had to know if she truly wanted this, or if she...

Neji tied his hitai-ite with more force than was necessary, the slight discomfort distracting him from unwanted thoughts. First things first, he had to find his wife, and because there were strict rules of propriety regarding using the Byakugan, especially within the Hyuuga compound, he could not simply 'look' for her.

He had expected that he would have to find out where TenTen's team met and trained in order to talk to her this morning, but when he came around a corner downstairs she was right in front of him, and she wasn't alone.

It was a bit of a surprise to see that TenTen was not wearing the same kind of clothes she use to, and instead had on a Jounin's vest and pants, but what was more shocking was that it appeared that there was nothing else underneath that vest.

While Neji was examining the edges of the vest in hopes of finding a hint of some kind of shirt underneath, he came to the realization that the person speaking to her was male. The intruder had one arm braced on the wall next to TenTen's head while he leaned in closely, as if telling her a private thought.

"I don't know, I thought you made a pretty good wife."

Because of the way the man was leaning slightly forward, it was not until he spoke that Neji realized that it was Shikamaru taking such liberties with TenTen. The same territorial, protective urge that he had felt when he had awakened to Hisoka's presence in his room enveloped Neji, but this time he knew exactly to whom it was directed at. The desire to render Shikamaru's internal organs to mush only intensified when TenTen bent to retrieve something from the floor and revealed the other man's tender expression.

Neji had seen Shikamaru frustrated, exasperated, bored, worried, pissed off and even frightened on different occasions but the kind of emotion Shikamaru showed for that instant before he had known he was being watched, Neji had only seen given to Chouji. He was not sure if this made him want to kill Shikamaru more or less, but Neji decided that he would figure that out after he had broken every bone in Shikamaru's body for calling TenTen his wife.

Neji was preparing to advance when he found that he could not. In his peripheral vision, he could see that his shadow was darker and longer than it should have been in the low light of the hallway, but he did not need to see that to know that he had been trapped in Shikamaru's jutsu.

"TenTen, aren't you late for your squad meeting?" Hanabi asked when she came around from behind him, Neji could not even turn his head to look at her as she passed by.

"Shimata!" TenTen exclaimed before adjusting the load on her shoulder and looking back in his direction.

"See you guys tonight," she told them with a hurried smile, but then she stopped to take a hold of Shikamaru's elbow in a familiar manner. "Thanks for delivering these Shika."

Years of careful Hyuuga emotional discipline shattered in an instant. What had been a passing fancy to murder his fellow shinobi was now evolving into actual intent. The more Neji mulled over what he had heard and seen, the more 'intent' he became. If Shikamaru had not have locked him in place with his shadow, Neji would have already closed the distance between them to act upon this new uncontrollable feeling.

She had stopped to touch _him_, while her _husband _had only received a passing glance.

Neji's left foot slid forward, and Shikamaru's jaw clinched in concentration.

"I'm heading on to breakfast," Hanabi said, unaware of what was happening in front of her, and both males ignored her in return.

TenTen had accepted a gift from some other man and had _thanked _him for it.

Neji's shoulders jerked into a downward slope towards his adversary and his opponent's eyes widened in disbelief.

She had addressed _him_ with a nickname, while he had been lumped together with his cousin with a 'you guys'!

Neji was just able to finish forcing his body into the opening stance of his jutsu when Shikamaru narrowed his eyes and put a stronger hold on the shadow under his control.

"So do I even get a chance to fill out my Will and say goodbye to my parents before you kill me?" Shikamaru asked in a bored tone even though his stance was far more serious.

"You are a shinobi," Neji reminded him needlessly, "Those things should already be taken care of."

"Yeah, you're right," the other man agreed with a yawn muffling his words, but his hold on Neji did not waver. "But I haven't bother with it yet."

They stood like that for a few minuets, one because he choose to, the other because he had no choice. Suddenly Shikamaru sighed and as he brought his hand up to scratch at the back of his head, his Shadow Possession unraveled. It was gradual enough that Neji did not stumble when he was fully released, but he did not come out of his stance even though the hotheadedness of his actions had cooled slightly.

"Look, it isn't whatever it is you think it is."

"Then you have no feelings for TenTen at all," Neji stated and waited hopefully for Shikamaru's agreement, instead he received a disbelieving gape.

"Man, you've got it bad."

It was neither an agreement nor a denial but Shikamaru's surprise and what appeared to be pity on his behalf went a long way in dispelling Neji's violent thoughts. While not completely appeased, Hyuuga logic had regained control. Disemboweling his commanding officer in his uncle's hallway would not be prudent. It was far more logical to do it outside where he could bury the body in the hole his Kaiten would make.

Pleased with the image that he knew he would never act upon, Neji slowly straighten out of his stance and his squad captain relaxed his posture, but the two of them did not look away from each other.

"I didn't come just to deliver those gourds for Temari," Shikamaru told him, placing extra emphasis on his girlfriend's name as if reminding Neji of the Nara's well established emotional entanglement with the Kazekage's older sister. "We still need to give the Hokage our individual reports from our last mission."

It was on the tip of his tongue to remind Shikamaru that he had been with Tsunade-sama during the entire mission functioning as look-out, and would not need to give an accounting of the events he was involved in, but if he left with Shikamaru now he could avoid the long drawn out discussion with Hiashi-sama that always followed a mission and reporting to the Hokage would give him the perfect excuse to leave so that he could look for TenTen. There were several things he wished to discuss, but why Shikamaru felt that he could be so familiar with his wife now had moved to the top of the list.

"I understand," Neji replied, his cold demeanor firmly in place as if his loss of control earlier had never happened.

Shikamaru shook his head and seemed bemused, but did not comment as they left. At first it seemed like the entire trip would be made in welcomed silence, but suddenly his squad captain turned to look at him before saying what had apparently been on his mind since their confrontation in the hallway.

"Yeah know Neji, there are worse things than to be in love with your wife."

His shock at Shikamaru's words almost made Neji miss his next footing, which would have sent him tumbling five stories to the alley below. He recovered quickly, but now the idea was lodged firmly in his head and refused to be ignored.

Did he love TenTen?

Shamefully, in all his contemplations about his wife, never once had that particular thought come up. Why would it? In the same vein of knowing that the choice of his bride would not be his, Neji had dismissed the idea of 'love' as unreachable. He had hoped that he would at least respect the woman that he would wed, and at most have some affection for her over time, but to actually love her had seemed a fool's dream and he had discarded it as such a long time ago.

When he had found out whom he was marrying, a large part of him rejoiced in the knowledge that he would accomplish both of his wishes for his marriage before a single vow was spoken. TenTen had earned his respect even before he had realized he had given it, and affection was an emotion he had been fighting for almost as long as that. But was that love in the way that Shikamaru obviously meant?

If it were, then that would mean that he had been in love with TenTen since they were children. Was it even possible for him not to have known or realized it? Would there not have been some kind of sign, or symptom (for lack of a better word) that would have made it obvious to him?

What Neji knew or saw of romantic love was limited to what he considered to be a few, unfavorable examples. There was Hinata's one-sided infatuation with Naruto that rendered her incapable of coherent thought or speech. Shikamaru's never directly mentioned relationship with Temari that Neji could never determine if his squad leader did or did not want. The whole Naruto/Sakura/Sasuke thing that just seemed to revolve in a never-ending circle that appeared to be more painful than it was worth. None of these examples applied to him and TenTen and he was thankful for that.

But what _did_ they have between them? What did he feel?

Neji thought back to his return home last night, and how TenTen had dutifully performed tasks that, if she had have been any other woman, he would have expected of his wife. Then he also remembered how dissatisfied he had felt at that treatment and acknowledged he wanted more: more of her, more of their marriage, more of everything that had been denied him from himself and his clan's archaic ways.

He thought even further back to when TenTen had been offered a position in ANBU about four months ago. He remembered the excitement he had felt at the possibility of having the excuse of seeing her every day. He remembered the pride he had felt that she had achieved such a level completely on her own by her own merits. He also vividly remembered the elation of hearing that she had turned the promotion down, thankful that she would not be placed so close to the frontline of battle where the possibility of her death would increase ten fold.

Then Neji recalled his reactions this morning; the rage he had felt believing someone had invaded his home and threatened his family that in his mind had consisted of only he and TenTen, the disappointment that had tore at his chest knowing she had not been there when he had woken up, and the feral possessiveness that would have at the very least put Shikamaru in the hospital if his squad captain had not restrained him long enough for his senses to return.

With all of that in the forefront of his mind, Neji asked himself if there was any other person, anyone anywhere in this world, that could make him feel that way other than TenTen, and the answer came back a resounding, 'No'.

"I am in love with TenTen."

Neji had not realized that he had spoken that revelation aloud until Shikamaru paused in opening the Hokage's office door to give him a look that quite plainly said he thought Neji had lost his mind.

"I think the standards for 'genius' must have changed between your year and mine at the academy," Shikamaru said jokingly, snapping Neji out of his stupor to glare at the Nara.

"I don't know how she puts up with you, if you're this dense all the time," his squad captain quipped before going into the office.

Something akin to ice water entered Neji's veins at that off-handed statement. Was _that_ what TenTen did? Simply 'put up' with him? Had she said as much to the Nara in confidence?

In an instant the euphoria of realizing he was in love with his wife was stripped away by the knowledge that she probably did not feel the same. Theirs was an arranged marriage and though he had come to realize that it was not an empty union on his end, the possibility still existed that TenTen may have been unable to refuse it and therefore did not desire to be married to him.

More determined than ever to find out TenTen's feeling on the matter, Neji marched into the Hokage's office to give his report only to be marched right back out again. To the amusement of the other ANBU that had been in attendance, Lady Tsunade had ordered him to look up 'honeymoon' in the dictionary and to then inform his wife of the definition because 'obviously neither one of them knew the meaning of the word'.

The good natured teasing of his Hokage flustered Neji less and the idea that TenTen did not even want to be married to him in the first place let alone conduct a proper 'honeymoon' with him. Right now his aching soul could not get past the possibility of TenTen not returning his feelings to concern himself with the physical aspect of marriage. The possession of his wife's body meant nothing in comparison to the possession of her heart.

But how would he proceed?

Some instinct told him that directly questioning TenTen on the matter would be a bad idea, at least for him. When they use to train together, they had been nothing but brutally honest with each other. It had been a trait of their friendship that he had greatly valued in comparison to the half truths and whispered lies of the Hyuuga clan's inner power struggles, but he was not sure he would be able to handle the cold reality of TenTen's disinterest if it were spoken aloud from her own lips. He would rather hold on to the hope that he was wrong than to have it confirmed.

Accepting that confronting TenTen directly was now not a possibility, Neji headed back the way he had come. It would take time for him to formulate a plan of action, a plan to make TenTen fall in love with him.

It took only minutes for him to reach the compound's gate, but in that short span of time the need to 'see' TenTen became too pressing. So before he actually set foot inside the parameter and therefore become subject to the limitations that were placed on the use of his Byakugan, Neji activated his birth rite and cast his gaze out until he found her.

On a training ground adjacent to their old one, TenTen's team was gathered, but they did not appear to be doing any training, or at least it was not the kind of training Team Gai had ever done.

Akihiko was upside-down on one hand on a tree limb just out of TenTen's reach. The young Nara was balancing a kunai on each of the fingers of his other hand as well as one kunai on each outstretched foot while he playfully stuck his tongue out at Hisoka below.

The Main House brat was spitting fire with his gaze but seemed unwilling to stoop to his teammate's level of childishness, at least with his beloved Sensei standing there to witness.

TenTen looked exasperated. She was rubbing her temples with her thumbs and covering her eyes with her fingers just the way she had when Lee and Gai-sensei would be over enthusiastic in their displays of 'youth'.

The one member of the squad that Neji had yet to meet personally, Mika, was sitting under a nearby tree, a fog of bugs orbiting her and covering the tree and grass around her.

"Is there anything of interest I should know about?" Hiashi-sama asked, making Neji startle into deactivating his jutsu.

Contrary to popular belief, it was possible to sneak up on a Hyuuga while their Byakugan was activated. The bloodline inheritance had several levels and modes of activation, a fact that was understandably not advertised. A 360 degree view was perfect for the initial searching, but did not allow for clear details, and seeing chakra flows was a different form of activation altogether. At that moment, Neji had had his sight focused down to only the area immediately surrounding TenTen's team in an effort to sharpen the image, as a result he had not seen his uncle's approach.

"I was just observing TenTen's genin squad," Neji replied truthfully and internally winced when he realized that he had used the same wording as Hisoka had this morning.

"Yes, they are…"

Neji turned to look at his uncle when he paused in his assessment of TenTen's team, and found Hiashi-sama looking in the appropriate direction as if his regular sight could see them. It made Neji wonder exactly how often the Hyuuga clan leader had 'looked in' on his new niece-in-law and her team.

"An interesting grouping," Lord Hiashi continued diplomatically. "I was not certain that such a challenging group on her first assignment was a wise decision, but the Hokage has assured me that TenTen is the most appropriate choice for them."

Neji did not comment because in order to do so he would have to admit he had met the children, then he would have to explain where and when, and he was not in the mood to have to explain his 'attack' on a Main House member, no matter how much the twerp deserved it.

"I assume all is well?" Hiashi asked as he walked towards the entrance gate.

Following behind his uncle as was expected of him, Neji answered in the affirmative, not really knowing if what he had seen was normal for TenTen's squad or not. It certainly did not seem to be productive, but it was by no means dangerous.

"Then you will have time to speak with me."

Neji knew a velvet-coated command when he heard one and did not reply knowing a response was not needed. When Hiashi-sama by-passed the main hall, the receiving room and even the sitting room, Neji became curious. When they turned down the hallway that led to his uncle's private rooms, he started to get nervous. In all of his 19 years he had been down this hallway only a handful of times, the two most memorable being the announcement of his father's death and of his betrothal.

Upon entering the private sitting room, Neji was surprised to see servants putting the finishing touches on a tea service for two on the low table by the shoji doors leading to his uncle's private garden. Neji willed himself not to smirk knowingly at Hiashi-sama's back, for it seemed that the rule disallowing the use of the Byakugan within the compound for something other than training did not apply to the Hyuuga lord. It was obvious that Hiashi-sama had known that he was coming.

His uncle motioned for him to sit opposite him before kneeling himself. Neji silently complied and followed the older Hyuuga's lead of waiting for the last remaining servant to pour their tea and leave before speaking.

"Is there something you wish to speak with me about?" Neji asked knowing very well that there was.

His uncle did not immediately respond. Instead Hiashi-sama picked up his cup, held it in his palms to test its temperature and took a sip. Neji had been through 'talks' like this before and it only increased his nervousness. His uncle used proper protocol most often as a shield and a delay tactic when he knew the conversion was of a sensitive or volatile nature. Having no clue as to what it could be about, Neji patently waited for his uncle to choose his words.

"Was I wrong to assume that you hold genuine affection for your wife?"

Neji was very glad he had not yet picked up his own cup because he was sure to have dropped it in surprise. Both Shikamaru and his uncle had accurately surmised his feelings before he had even been aware of their true depth, but where Shikamaru seemed to interpret his actions as an affirmation; Lord Hiashi appeared to believe that he was mistaken.

"Or is it that you find her displeasing in…"

"Of course not!" Neji interrupted forcefully not wanting his uncle to finish his sentence because he had a sinking feeling he knew where this conversation was headed.

Hiashi blinked twice at the outburst before calmly taking another sip of tea and smiling.

"I am glad." And Neji truly believed that his uncle was grateful and strangely relieved by the news.

Reassured that he had headed off an awkward discussion before it got started, Neji claimed his own cup to fill the void of conversation. Long moments passed with nothing but the wind chime on the porch outside the doorway making a sound.

"Is there some other reason why TenTen remains un-bedded for more than a fortnight after your wedding? I know it is not because you are unaware of the process."

Neji closed his eyes and prayed for an earthquake or some other minor natural disaster to save him from this slow, painful hell. His uncle was very much aware of his exact experience in regards to sex. Somewhere in the coded ANBU records was a detailed telling of the three missions he wished not to be reminded of, but Neji had told Hiashi-sama personally of those events. Not because he had wished to, but because it was required.

The highest imperative of the Hyuuga clan was the safety of the bloodline. Purity was not so much the concern or no Hyuuga would be allowed to marry outside the clan, but custody was. Bastards simply did not exist. If a Hyuuga child was ever conceived outside of a sanctioned union, especially if it involved a non-clan member, the situation was rectified by marriage or by seizure and adoption of the child if the mother was not Hyuuga.

So by Hyuuga law, Neji had been required to inform his uncle when there was any possibility at all that a child could have been conceived during the execution of his missions. For two of the instances it turned out to be a non-issue since the females in question did not survive, one because she was the target, the other because she was in the way of the target, but the third had been a tense two month wait to determine the consequences of his assignment, thankfully there had been none.

Neji fixed his uncle with what he hoped was a neutral stare. Hiashi-sama had opened up a whole new list of uncomfortable questions for Neji, and he would not put it passed his uncle to have done it knowingly. Had TenTen been required to perform such acts during the course of a mission? It was far more common for a konoichi; they were even trained for it. But did it matter to him, would it matter to her?

They both were aware of the pitfalls of their lives as shinobi, but Neji was coming to realize that it was not so academic a matter when your heart was involved. It pained him to think that such a private part of TenTen's life may have been given to a stranger, someone not of her choosing. It sickened him to remember his own loss to a woman that he had not known, and even worse had despised, all for the sake of a mission.

His past 'experience' had hardened his views on the intimate act to the point that he refused to think of it at all unless absolutely necessary. Of course he had realized that being intimate with his wife would be required at some point if for no other reason than to produce a child, but it had been an act he had not held any anticipation for, that is until now.

While he had proven that he could 'perform' if necessary, even if he had no real desire to; Neji had little doubt that there would be no need to pretend with TenTen. In fact, the acknowledgment of exactly how effortlessly being intimate with his wife would be was painfully increasing the rate of Neji's heart in a way that it never had before. His whole body itched with the rekindled need to find TenTen and woo her heart into loving him as he did her, so that she would share in this untamed feeling that was swallowing him whole. However Neji knew logically that would have to wait until after he finished with whatever it was that Hiashi-sama wanted with him.

"I was called away for a S-ranked mission on the night of our wedding, almost before the ceremony itself was completed and I only just returned last night, Hiashi-sama." Neji answered his uncle's question with information he knew the Hyuuga leader was already aware of.

"And were you grievously injured?" the Hyuuga lord asked, pointedly looking over his nephew's form and noted, without saying anything, the lack of bandages, splints or missing limbs.

"I was injured," Neji confirmed, "but TenTen repaired the damage. There was no need for other assistance."

"Ah, so she exhausted herself healing your injury," his uncle stated with what sounded like reassurance in his voice.

"Actually, I was the one that fell asleep," Neji admitted not only because it was the truth, but because he did not want it to appear that TenTen lacked ability in any way.

Hiashi-sama paused again, the weight of his next words obvious in his hesitation.

"Neji, I feel that I should make you aware of the Elders' concerns and plans. Though I do not share their views, the Elders believe that due to your wife's unique clan position that her only true value is that of bearing you children that the Main House may claim as their own."

Neji was startled by this information. Though it should have been more important to him, Neji's disgust at his clan's uneven treatment of the two Houses kept him from caring about such things. He had always assumed that his children would automatically be placed into the Branch House as he had been following his father, but he now realized what should have been obvious from the beginning that placement into a House could be at the discretion of the Elders' wishes.

His own father should have been in the Main House by virtue of his birth, but because he was the second of twins, the Elders had forced him into the Branch House. Before Neji could ask any questions, his uncle continued.

"In order to allow TenTen a continued life as a shinobi I had to place the restriction of two years of 'maternity leave'."

Hiashi-sama's confession came with a sour grimace, but whether it was because of the subject or his choice of words that made it distasteful to his uncle, Neji could not tell.

"It is of the Elders' opinion that she be forced to take that leave as soon as possible, and due to the two year time frame and her hardier disposition than most typical Hyuuga brides, that she remain 'on leave' until she can no longer resume an active role as a ninja of this village."

Hiashi-sama's artful words left little doubt of the Elders' intentions. He was to get his wife pregnant as soon as possible and to keep her that way until her skills had deteriorated to the point that she would not be allowed to accept missions. A single two-year leave of absence would be hard enough to recover from, but two consecutive 'maternity leaves' would be next to impossible to return from. He could ruin TenTen's career in as little as four years.

"I would not do that to her," when his uncle's eyes narrowed in misunderstanding, Neji elaborated. "TenTen is TenTen because of her will to become a kunoichi as powerful as the Hokage. I would not take that from her."

Hiashi-sama's rueful smile was startling in its intensity and Neji was thankful that it was apparently directed inward and not at him by the way the Hyuuga leader looked off into the distance beyond the private garden outside the open doorway.

"We Hyuuga believe ourselves to be all seeing, and that is our greatest weakness. The things that we should hold most dear are right before our eyes and yet we find it difficult to see them."

For a moment Neji wondered if Hiashi-sama was speaking of his own treatment of his daughter Hinata, his brother and himself, or if his uncle was referring to Neji's own blindness in regards to his now obvious feelings for TenTen. But in the end it did not matter because it applied to all of them. Hiashi-sama returned his gaze to his nephew.

"Do not give the Elders reason to request an annulment, Neji. While TenTen's unbeguiling nature is befitting her, it also vividly marks her as being what she; untouched."

Only moments ago Neji had been considering what he would do if he found out that TenTen had lost her virginity during a mission, and now his uncle was telling him is was obvious that was not the case. Resentful at his apparent lack of knowing a single important detail about his own wife, Neji did not bother to sensor or hold back his next words.

"Do I need to take her in the main hall to prove that our marriage has been consummated?" Neji asked bitterly, uncomfortable with the idea that his bedroom was an open topic of discussion within the clan.

Hiashi-sama smirked in a way that told Neji that while his words were teasing his uncle was also very serious.

"While I am sure some of the Elders would relish a return to the old ways, I can assure you that the change in TenTen's 'status' will be obvious to those that are watching without such a display."

The flush that Neji had been struggling with seemingly all day finally surfaced when he realized that his sarcastic remark could have been taken sincerely if it had been spoken during open council. Neji uncharacteristically fiddled with his teacup, watching the tea leaves and faintly green colored liquidswirl around with his unperceivable motions. Silence stretched between them again, but this time it was not as tense as it had been the first time.

"Neji, I know that I cannot replace what was taken from you," Neji's uncle began, but stopped when it seemed that he was unable to completely voice his thoughts. When the silence continued, Neji looked up to find Hiashi-sama looking into his own cup, his eyes contemplative before settling on a new topic.

"Might I suggest returning to the routine you had established while with your genin squad?"

Slightly confused as to where this was headed, Neji patiently waited and he was rewarded with an explanation.

"While a typical woman might be swayed by gifts and words of devotion, I believe your wife would more appreciate an opportunity to keep her skills sharp until her students are capable of providing her a challenge."

In his typical way of talking around a subject without actually speaking his mind outright, Hiashi-sama had given Neji the perfect way to pursue his wife's affections without having to be blatantly obvious about it. Neji had never been closer to TenTen, both physically and emotionally, than when they had spent hours a day training, often alone, when Gai-sensei and Lee would run off into the sunrise (or sunset) together on a quest for 'youth'. While it ran the risk of cementing him in her mind and heart as only an ex-teammate, it would allow him to be with her without the awkwardness of traditional dating. Besides, this time Neji planned on focusing solely on TenTen and not his restless pursuit of perfection.

"Although she did lament to your cousin while unpacking her clan's ancestral weapons that she had yet to acquire her own personalized chakra infused weapon as is traditional for her ranking in her clan, sighting an inability to decide on a single instrument," Hiashi-sama commented absently, drawing Neji back to the present one-sided conversation. A cheeky smirk made a brief appearance on his uncle's face before being hidden by a raised teacup.

"But if you would, try courting your wife with your fists first. Her insatiable apatite for weaponry will leave us all penniless before the year is out."

Neji was left gaping unbecomingly while his uncle finished his tea.

---------------------

I thrive on constructive criticism and cookies, not flames.

Kat

Sorry for the wait. I went in a totally wrong direction with this chapter and had to do a lot of editing. Some of it was good stuff, but it just didn't belong in this chapter. Just imagine how long this chapter would have been if I had have left it all in! Anyway, here are TenTen's students' names translations (or at least the ones I'm using).

Nara Akihiko – bright prince

(I'm translating Hisoka's nickname of Aki-chan as Sparkly-chan. It's an intentional misinterpretation on Hisoka's part of 'aki' from 'bright' to 'sparkling')

Hyuuga Hisoka – reserved

Aburame Mika – beautiful fragrance

BTW, I'm thinking about writing a companion piece of Shikamaru and TenTen's mission together if there is enough interest.

This chapter's song, Neji

Hands Open

by Snow Patrol

It's hard to argue when

you won't stop making sense

But my tongue still misbehaves and it

keeps digging my own grave with my

Hands open, and my eyes open

I just keep hoping

That your heart opens

Why would I sabotage

the best thing that I have

Well, it makes it easier to know

exactly what I want with my...

Hands open and my eyes open

I just keep hoping

that your heart opens

It's not as easy as willing it all to be right

Gotta be more than hoping it's right

I wanna hear you laugh like you really mean it

Collapse into me, tired with joy

[x2]

Put Sufjan Stevens on

and we'll play your favorite song

"Chicago" bursts to life and your

sweet smile remembers you, my

Hands open, and my eyes open

I just keep hoping

That your heart opens

It's not as easy as willing it all to be right

Gotta be more than hoping it's right

I wanna hear you laugh like you really mean it

Collapse into me, tired with joy

[x3]


	4. Chapter 4 of 5

A Naruto Fanfiction

One Last Gift

4/?

By Paperkat

11/25/09

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor am I making money from this fanfiction.

* * *

If you guys are curious, I have written a Shikamaru/TenTen side story about their mission together called, 'Can't Take You Anywhere'. It shouldn't contain any information you would need to understand this story.

* * *

TenTen resisted the urge to push her thumbs through her temples thereby ending her existence and this slow torture otherwise known as her genin squad assignment. Today hadn't started at all like she had planed.

Actually the disruption to her day had started last night with Neji's unexpected return. Instead of preparing the next day's activities, TenTen had spent her time, quite willingly, taking care of her husband. Then of course there had been Shikamaru that had shown up with the gourds which had distracted her enough to make her late to picking up her team's assignments for the week. Of course when she did get to the Hokage's office she had been ruthlessly teased about not being locked up with her husband having a proper honeymoon.

The memory of the sly looks and unconcealed winks between the other sensei still made TenTen's cheeks burn with embarrassment, and she was glad that she was already covering her face with her hands so that her students couldn't see.

It had been humiliating to have to stand there and take all the catty comments and not be able to fight back. It wasn't her fault that Neji hadn't felt like... doing... what they all thought the newlyweds should be doing. The only one to not tease her had been Lee, but his sincere offer to have 'the talk' with Neji had sparked off a round of laughter that had made the whole situation that much worse.

Seriously, if any of them knew Neji like she did they would know that you couldn't make that Hyuuga do anything until he was damn good and ready to. With a bitter frown, TenTen acknowledged that it was probably on his list of things to get accomplished, but her husband was nothing if not practical. He had just returned from a mission, so rest and recuperation were of a higher priority. It wasn't like she could just jump him and have her wicked, well thought out way with him after all. Could she?

With a mental shake TenTen banished that idea and the alluring images that came with it from her wary mind because thoughts like that had never gotten her anywhere in the past so why would anything change now?

Wearily, TenTen spread the fingers covering her eyes to confirm that Akihiko was still up in the tree goofing off, Mika was still sulking under a tree and Hisoka was still plastered to her side. She snapped her fingers closed again and tried harder to massage away the headache that had formed. How could the Hokage possibly believe that she could handle this group let alone help them when her own life was so pathetic?

_"I think the four of you have a lot in common," Tsunade-sama had told her when she had handed over a folder containing her squad's information over two months ago._

_"How so?" TenTen had asked as she opened the folder and scanned the summary cover page with all four of their pictures._

_TenTen had immediately recognized Hisoka from an incident at the Hyuuga compound several years ago even if his white eyes and unmarked forehead didn't already give him away as a Main House Hyuuga. The other two children she wouldn't have been able to recognize as belonging to their respective clans if not for their names written underneath._

_"Your background concerning difficult Hyuuga prodigies is well documented and as for the other two..."_

_Lady Tsunade had paused then, caressing a folder with her manicured fingertips. TenTen had recognized it as an ANBU personnel file, but it had been yellowed with age and lightly smudged by inky fingerprints far too large to have come from the current Hokage's hands._

_"Let's just say they have special considerations that I believe you are familiar with."_

_"I'm sure I don't know what you mean." TenTen had confessed confused, but Lady Tsunade had just folded her hands under her chin and had smiled cheekily at her._

_"Oh, I'm sure it will come to you in time."_

_Come to her in time? Help each other?_ TenTen scoffed in her head. How was that supposed to work? She had a 12-year-old Nara that had all the charm Gai-sensei wished he had and probably couldn't sit still even in his sleep. She had a 14-year-old female Aburame that had Kikaichuu buzzing around her constantly that, more often than not, interfered with any training or mission they attempted. And the one student that she could have helped because of her past experience with Neji, had a broken Byakugan.

TenTen sighed and removed her hands completely from her face. Akihiko was now balancing on his head and juggling his kunai, Hisoka was still in the exact same spot in the exact same pose as if he were made of stone, and Mika was so covered in bugs at this point that the only things TenTen could see were the girl's face and hitai-ite. Not that she would have seen much more without the Kikaichuu in the way. Mika had started wearing a hooded jacket like the men in her clan that hid almost everything, including the fact that she was female.

TenTen felt a pang of pity for the girl. Women of the Aburame clan typically were indistinguishable from the everyday civilian. Only those with the sharpest eye would notice their husband/father/brother's tiny surveillance beetles that would occasionally peak out from a pocket or from under the edge of a collar.

From what TenTen had come to understand since having Mika in her squad was that the Aburame held woman in the highest regard. They were possessive, insanely protective to the point of being almost oppressive, and they would do anything to keep the woman in their lives happy. Though, in TenTen's opinion, they tended to make a very poor first impression with the way they choose to go about showing such devotion.

Before having Mika on her squad, TenTen hadn't had much of an opinion about the Aburame in general and Shino specifically. She knew the man only marginally and that had been through Hinata. From what TenTen had observed she had surmised that Shino was an observant but reserved individual that had true care and pride for his teammates. What she hadn't known was how much of an ass he could appear to those that were not use to his straight forward, yet confusing, way of speaking.

When Shino had confronted her after her squad had been assigned, TenTen had formed a very unflattering image of Mika's clan. The Aburame heir had, in TenTen's mind, effectively warned her not to expect 'too much' of Mika because of her handicap of being a girl.

TenTen's temper at Shino's apparent sexist attitude had made her insist on a second meeting, this one with the Aburame clan leader, to 'better understand her student' where she had pretty much interrogated Shino's father about Aburame practices.

TenTen had found out in that meeting that Shino's poorly phrased words had not conveyed the extent of the Aburame's concern over Mika's predicament. She was also given a rare opportunity to be included in a few clan secrets.

TenTen had been told that the reason Mika couldn't control or communicate with the Kikaichuu was because she had not been initiated into the clan's jutsus at her birth. Without actually being able to 'host' the insects there was no way for her to establish a connection with the Kikaichuu. Having the insects implanted at such an early age ensured that they would be specific to the individual Aburame and not influenced by outside stimuli.

TenTen had been told that the reason female Aburame were never 'hosts' was because the process would render them sterile. Both the pheromones that the insects produced and the 'nest' they would make destroyed any chance of carrying a baby to term. While an Aburame could always chose to no longer carry Kikaichuu, the changes that the insects made to their bodies were irreversible.

The one confession that TenTen had not expected to be divulged was that for unknown reasons the rightful owners of the insects that plagued Mika could not be identified, something that had disturbed the clan greatly. At first it had been assumed that one of the younger boys had been playing pranks on Mika by having his Kikaichuu torment her, or that possibly one of their young men had poor control over his bugs and that their Kikaichuu were mistaking normal fluctuating puberty hormones with actual mating intentions.

Shino's father had also confessed to sending Mika to live at the academy, despite her advanced age of ten upon entry, hoping that if she was away from the source of the rouge Kikaichuu that the situation would fix itself. By the time the Aburame realized that there was a real problem it had already been too late. Mika's Kikaichuu were not only not dying approximately every four hours like normal, they were increasing in number, the Swarm was there to stay and only getting worse.

TenTen hadn't had a clue what to do for Mika. It had been obvious that the girl loved being a kunoichi and was actually a very good ninja. Mika had graduated in only four years, but her Kikaichuu were making it increasingly difficult for the girl. It was getting to the point that clients were specifically requesting to not have their squad assigned because of the uncontrollable insects. And while TenTen had made an effort to keep her squad from finding this out, it had been only a matter of time before they figured it out for themselves. Mika's depression over the whole situation was starting to worry TenTen, and she was certain that the girl was planing on quitting the team.

_Well, there's at least one thing I might be able to help with,_ TenTen thought to herself as she abandoned her attempts to get the mischievous, blonde, green eyed Nara out of the tree in favor of trying her idea to help Mika.

TenTen didn't have to look to know that Hisoka was following. Though the boy was always within two meters of her, he was never underfoot, and TenTen appreciated his quiet, unobtrusive obedience in counter point to Mika's sulking and Akihiko's clownish ways. Returning to where she had left her backpack and the gourds, TenTen effortlessly flipped open a pouch on her thigh, exacted a kunai and whirled it around and between her fingers.

She continued to weave the razor sharp blade in an almost meditative way through her fingers as she looked over the three gourds and chose the one that looked 'right'. She had asked Temari for three gourds of varying age in case it mattered how ripe the fruit needed to be. Finally selecting the one that looked the most mature, TenTen threaded a finger through the loop in her kunai and used the double-jointed dexterity in her hand to drill a neat little hole, only as big as her smallest finger, near the top. After all the research she had done, TenTen had thought she would be prepared for the smell. The pungent, flowery sweet scent was almost overwhelmingly pleasant and made her sneeze.

All at once, the constant buzzing hum that always accompanied Mika's presence stopped. The silence caught everyone's attention in the two-seconds that it lasted before the buzz tripled in intensity. TenTen's best opportunity to witness Kikaichuu in action had been during the first Chuunin Exam, but the sight before her was far more impressive and frightening knowing that the insects were doing this on their own with no direction other than their instincts.

In movements that looked like smoke pulled along on a breeze, the Kikaichuu enveloped Mika and gently brought her to her feet. The Swarm circled around her, lifting up the edges of her clothing and pushing back the hood she constantly had up to hide within to reveal Mika's shockingly brilliant burgundy hair that flashed like garnets in the dappled sunlight under the trees. The insects picked and pulled at the long sticks holding the girl's hair in place against her head until the heavy mass fell to Mika's waist.

TenTen had been hoping that the Kikaichuu would respond, but not this dramatically. To date the Kikaichuu had never harmed Mika but that didn't guarantee that wouldn't change. With mild concern, TenTen reached into one of her multiple vest pockets and fingered a special summoning tag she had created. Upon activation it would bring forth a finely woven steel net that she hoped would contain the insects if they became too… enamored of their mistress.

"What are they doing?" Akihiko asked hesitantly from his place in the tree, the concern evident in the blonde boy's voice. TenTen had a strong suspicion she knew what the Kikaichuu were up to, but until this all played out she wasn't going to voice her theory.

Mika gave a startled cry when the Kikaichuu began to sweep at her hair and pull insistently at her clothes. The young kunoichi gathered her fiery hair in her hands and brought it over her shoulder to clutch it against her chest and shot her sensei a frightened look.

"It's all right, Mika," TenTen assured her student as she held out the punctured gourd. "Take this and focus your charka into it."

Mika look turned skeptical until the Kikaichuu managed to get the front of her hooded jacket open and swarmed inside. The girl lunged for the gourd and laid her palms on the surface. TenTen raised an eyebrow but said nothing when unexpectedly, patterns etched their way across the wood-like skin from where Mika touched the gourd, burning themselves into the surface and releasing a musky scent to mingle and temper with the sweet one.

The change in odor relieved TenTen somewhat since that had been the expected result of Mika infusing the gourd with her chakra, but she didn't let go of the summoning tag still concealed in her pocket. Since all of this was an experiment based on vague ideas, TenTen had no choice but to continue with her original plan even though it seemed to be getting more complex by the moment.

"Now tell them to go into the gourd," TenTen instructed, completely expecting the incredulous look she received. After all, Mika's own clan had not found a way help her, but TenTen was banking on that the Aburame had only been trying to 'cure' Mika of her problem and not encouraging her to control it.

"Um," Mika hesitated, her doubt clear in her amber eyes. "Go inside... now?"

Though the child's voice held no audible authority, the Swarm swept away from her so quickly that Mika swayed. As a single mind, the Kikaichuu moved in a tight ball above Team Misfit's heads. Much like ants would make a single file line when moving along the forest floor, the Aburame clan's signature insects made their way from the writhing ball to the hole TenTen had made.

Apparently the process was too slow for the now obedient Swarm, as four more lines formed and attacked the gourd, quickly making their own openings to get inside. The gourd rattled under Mika's hands and as more of the Kikaichuu entered, their distinctive hum became deeper in pitch until finally they were all inside and the forest was silent.

"Whoa," Akihiko whispered as he jumped down from his perch to land next to Mika and the gourd.

"Are they all really in there?" the green eyed boy questioned as he reached out and knocked on the watermelon sized gourd with his knuckles, the reaction was immediate.

The Kikaichuu rattled inside angrily before sending a few representatives out of the five holes, but they needn't have bothered. Mika had already socked Akihiko up-side his head and gave the blonde boy an extra bonk on the top as the Nara laid there complaining.

"I was only checking!"

"Leave them alone you idiot!"

TenTen was pleased to see that the few insects that had come back out did little more than make themselves sentries at the openings. With a smile, she refastened the pocket holding the summoning tag, glad that she had not been forced to use it.

"Is this what you were speaking with Temari-san about, Sensei-sama?" Hisoka asked in a whisper that would have been lost on the wind if he hadn't have been so close in the first place.

TenTen frowned down at the boy for using the horrific, and even though Hisoka blushed and winced at the mildly harsh look, he set his jaw with Hyuuga stubbornness, and for the first time since knowing him TenTen thought he resembled Neji. Hisoka and Neji, like all the other members of their clan, had the general characteristics of the Hyuuga: dark hair, pale skin, lean frame, and of course the white eyes, but the two Hyuuga males couldn't have been more dissimilar even if they had have been unrelated.

Hisoka's hair resembled flowing black ink that reflected any illumination no matter how dim, while Neji's hair was a dark mahogany that seemed to adsorb the light like a void. Hisoka's complexion had a pale pink undertone that frequently bloomed on his cheeks when his emotions ran high, Neji on the other hand could almost be described as bloodless, his flawless skin was like unchangeable white marble. While the younger Hyuuga would probably always be described as appearing feminine with his delicate bone structure and frame, Neji could never be mistaken for a woman even with his hair now longer than most of the girls she knew. But the real difference was in their eyes.

TenTen had spent much of her youth watching Neji's eyes in the hopes of finding the key to reading the stoic Hyuuga both for an advantage in battle and for far more personal reasons. She knew that in a certain light they gave the illusion of being tinted lavender and in the darkness they would shine like a cat's eyes would. She had figured out the trick in telling which direction a Hyuuga was looking was by the movement of their eyelids and the slight shadow that was cast upon their irises by the cornea. But all of these observations couldn't explain the inexplicable 'something' that was hidden behind Neji's eyes.

It had always been there, that 'something', like the stars you knew were in the sky obscured by the sun's light. And maybe, if Neji had never had that emotional reaction during his chuunin exam battle with Naruto, TenTen would have dismissed her 'intuition' as nothing more than youthful longing. But she had seen it, and she knew that it was there, and so the obsession began. What was it that Neji had caged behind his all-seeing eyes?

Hisoka was the exact opposite. Everything the boy felt was reflected in his eyes, though he let little of it show through with words or actions. TenTen didn't need to ask if her young Hyuuga student was angry, happy, pleased or upset, with one glance she could tell, just like she could read that Hisoka hoped that she would overlook him calling her 'Sensei-sama' and answer his question instead.

"Yes, but I didn't think it would work quite this well," TenTen confessed as she watched Akihiko endure Mika's amber glare so that he could examine the gourd. The blonde Nara never actually touching it, but still only a hair's breath away, staring at the Sentry Kikaichuu that buzzed threateningly back.

"TenTen-sensei?"

Mika's naturally husky voice brought TenTen back to the present. Kohona's only Weapons Mistress and the only Aburame kunoichi ever regarded each other. Mika had the gourd clutched around its middle and the first smile that TenTen had ever seen from the fourteen year-old girl threatened to split her face in half.

"Thank you, TenTen-sensei, thank you, but how did you know?"

"I didn't," TenTen told her truthfully. "But I figured that all you really needed was a way to connect with them."

"Through a vegetable?" Akihiko asked disbelievingly.

"It's a fruit," Hisoka corrected, before TenTen could. "It's the same kind that the Kazekage uses isn't it?"

"That's right, Hisoka," TenTen praised, ruffling the boy's inky bangs so that they fell into his face. Akihiko laughed at Hisoka's attempts to straighten his hair, but his teasing didn't even budge the smile on the Hyuuga's face.

"Gaara-sama? But I don't understand," Mika confessed frowning down at her new present.

"Well, you see, the reason he uses those particular gourds is because they resonate chakra, it helps him connect to the sand more strongly."

"But I thought he could control any sand, anywhere, and make his own even if there isn't any," Mika interrupted. TenTen sometimes forgot that by being older than the other two genin and only five years younger that herself, Mika had a far wider general knowledge base.

"He can," TenTen agreed, "but if you had a way of doing all of that and use less chakra wouldn't you do it too?" TenTen questioned back.

"So are you saying that the bugs just couldn't 'hear' Mika-chan's chakra?" Akihiko asked thoughtfully, earning him his own praising hair ruffle from his sensei and an icy white glare from the Hyuuga beside him.

"That's exactly what I thought," TenTen confirmed rather impressed with the squad's class clown reasoning abilities, before placing a hand on Mika's shoulder. "I don't know if this will allow you to use any of the Aburame jutsus, but if it doesn't we'll just come up with our own."

Mika's warm gold eyes got suspiciously bright before she slung her gourd onto her back, using the crimson cords as a strap the way Gaara would, and threw her arms around TenTen making the Jounin stumble back. Mika was tall for her age, and showed promise of being taller than her sensei before too much longer.

"Thank you, Sensei-sama!"

"Not you too?!" Akihiko groaned, smacking his forehead with the palm of his hand like TenTen wished she could do right now.

"All right, that's enough of that," TenTen said gruffly, pulling the young kunoichi away and winking at Mika's beaming smile.

"Ok, now that I have your attention," TenTen paused long enough for everyone to look pointedly at Akihiko. The Nara had the nerve to look both affronted and apologetic in a frustratingly adorable way which TenTen hoped she'd get immune to in time.

"There's some squad business we need to get out of the way for the Hokage."

TenTen searched through her pockets and pulled out a small stack of square paper and handed one sheet to each of her students before storing the extras.

"What's this for?" Akihiko asked his emerald eyes squinting in confusion, turning the paper forward and back, examining both blank sides.

"It's elemental detection paper," Hisoka answered smugly, but then frowned. "Are we going to train with elemental jutsu?"

"I hope not, because I'm not very good at them," TenTen confessed. Really she couldn't perform any elemental jutsu with any reliable results though she had been told repeatedly that her technique was perfect.

"Then why are we doing this?" Mika asked as she finished braiding her garnet colored hair and then accepted the sheet handed to her.

"Some kind of ability census Tsunade-sama is having all the squads do. We're the only ones that haven't turned in our results," TenTen told her students with a shrug, not understanding the reasoning either, but the Fifth Hokage did things differently than TenTen remembered the Third doing. In fact, Team Gai had never bothered with detecting their elemental affinity since she had been too focused on perfecting her choice of jutsu, Lee wouldn't be able to use it anyway, and Neji had a Kekkei Genkai with the known affinities of lightening and water.

"So, we just focus our chakra through these?' Hisoka asked in confirmation and TenTen nodded no longer surprised by the ten year-old's vast knowledge.

The three genin shot a quick glance at each other before clutching their paper and concentrating, and TenTen didn't know where to look first.

Twin ripping sounds accompanied Mika and Akihiko's paper splitting in half, drowning out the quiet wrinkle of Hisoka's paper. Things would have and should have stopped there, but in the next instant Mika yelped when the two halves of her paper crumbled out of her hand and burst into tiny flames on the way to the ground. Akihiko was too busy watching Mika to notice that his own two halves had wrinkled and then became a soggy mess in his hand. The only thing that did do as TenTen had expected was Hisoka's paper laying wet in his grip, he was a Hyuuga after all with both lightening and water making up his bloodline limit.

"I think this paper's busted," Akihiko said, shaking the water from his halves like two dead wet fish.

"Yours is busted?! Mine caught on fire!" Mika exclaimed, stomping out the few embers that remained on the ground and smoldering.

"You probably didn't do it... Eow!"

Hisoka dropped his wet paper and examined his hand that had been holding it. TenTen knelt over the abandoned sheet on the grass and watched with trepidation close to panic as it steamed itself dry before burning slowly into ash.

"Ha! Your paper's just as busted as ours," Akihiko crowed pointing at Hisoka's scowling face.

"This can't be right," TenTen said, the worry that was sitting low in her belly coloring her voice.

"Sensei-sama?"

"Not now, Hisoka!"

When the boy flinched back, TenTen sighed. Despite all of his genius and his ageless white Hyuuga eyes, Hisoka was still a very young boy with a tender heart, and though she knew it would eventually happen, TenTen did not look forward to the day when Hisoka would harden into a true shinobi and leave that little child behind under her direction. But that day didn't need to be today, so TenTen smoothed out the last few misaligned hairs in Hisoka's inky black bangs before softening her voice.

"The paper is probably defective like Akihiko said," TenTen lied, and she could see that the ten year old in front of her knew it too.

Hisoka was a very smart boy and he most likely knew that what just happened, shouldn't have happened. All shinobi had an affinity towards an element, a single element, only those with a Kekkei Genkai had a natural double affinity, it was what gave them their bloodlimit. But three affinities? It just wasn't... shouldn't be possible.

"I need to speak with the Hokage," TenTen told her squad grimly having a feeling that her idol might already know what was going on.

-

**- Later that night...**

-

TenTen wasn't sure if she had ever been this tired in her life. A and S Class missions not withstanding of course. But at least with missions you had adrenaline to see you through, training on the other hand, all you had was your own drive, desire, and if you were fortunate, a training partner with equal enthusiasm. A shaky smile made a brief appearance before it fell to exhaustion. It would seem that every time she's been this worn out it's been in the presence of a Hyuuga.

Tilting her head so that her temple came into contact with Hisoka's forehead. The boy gave a muffled reply, but didn't actually wake or change his draped position on his sensei's back. TenTen would have preferred to jostle her youngest student to get a more coherent response, but she feared that her bone deep fatigue would cause her to drop the boy if she tried. As it was, she barely had ahold of him with her torso leaned forward to help support his dead weight, even as slight as it was. But as tired as TenTen was she knew that Hisoka was even worse off.

_"Yes, I knew what you would find out when your squad performed the test, TenTen," Tsunade-sama had confessed gently when the Weapons Mistress had demanded answers to her questions._

_It had been as if the Hokage hadn't wanted to frighten her away when she had pushed the ANBU file written by the Fourth Hokage's himself towards her. "Minato would not have left this if he had not been sure."_

_It had been the same fingerprint smudged file TenTen had seen months ago when she received her genin team assignment, confirming her earlier suspicion of Lady Tsunade's silent involvement. TenTen had opened the file and had found two photographs clipped to the personal information page- her personal information page._

_One picture had been of her swaddled in a blanket, the caption had told her it had been taken when she had been two months old. The second photo had the same date, but it had contained her father and Neji's father behind the Fourth Hokage as he held her in his arms, all three men had been smiling._

_"What does this mean?" TenTen had asked before even reading any of the information inside._

_Her Hokage had smiled mischievously and with a wink she had added, "It means you and your team have a lot of work ahead of you."_

TenTen sighed trying to focus her wandering thoughts, but it was impossible. After all how many people got told what she had and not dwell on it.

She had read the file cover to cover. There hadn't been much there, mostly just the Fourth's own experiences, a guide to how he had identified her to be like himself and Minato-sama's best guest at what their abilities meant with several pentagons with stars drawn within them. It the Fourth Hokage's guide that had led Lady Tsunade immediately to Mika and Akihiko. Hisoka had been the hardest to identify since he came from a clan with a Kekkei Genkai which both explained his inability to use his Byakugan correctly (if it was even a Byakugan that he was using) and why he almost went unnoticed.

Suddenly, TenTen's dragging foot caught a raised flagstone and she stumbled forward. Every muscle and every joint screamed in agony as the Jounin forced herself to regain her balance. Certain that if she adjusted her grip she would drop Hisoka, TenTen gritted through the pain and held onto her student's legs wrapped around her waist tighter.

Taking a deep breath, TenTen steadied herself and looked up through her bangs at the Hyuuga compound's main gate ahead. It took a moment for her to realize there were three ghostly figures moving in her direction and a moment longer to recognize them to be Hisoka's parents and her husband. TenTen now sighed in relief, she honestly didn't think she would make it one more step.

"You are late," Neji accused and TenTen gave a snort in response. If she had a kunai for every time she had heard him say that, she wouldn't need a mutant... Kekkei Genkai... thing... whatever it was to 'magically' summon/create her weapons.

"We got a little carried away," TenTen explained without actually explaining anything as she fell to her knees, hoping that it appeared that she had went willingly to the ground.

By the scowl on Neji's face TenTen knew that she had failed miserably, at least to his knowing eyes. TenTen was so tired she couldn't even summon the old familiar resentment at her husband's disgust of her lack of ability. Would his opinion of her worthiness as a shinobi change when he knew of her new found potential? Or would he mock her for not being able to recognized the talent herself?

"Oh, my," Hisoka's mother gasped as she came to her knees beside TenTen and Hisoka to help support the incoherent boy when he was placed on his own two feet. "Is he all right?"

"I am sure he is fine," Hisoka's father cut in quickly his face scowling in displeasure.

TenTen caught the way the man quickly shot a glance at the back of Neji's head and she had to suppress a growl. It was obvious, it least to her, that the man didn't want his son to appear weak in front of the clan's prodigy, especially since that prodigy was a Branch House member.

Over the years TenTen had seen other brief glimpses of the Main Houses snobbery, though it had not been quite as malicious as Neji had lead her to believe when they were genin. Not every Main House member treated the Branch House as servants though there was obviously a cast system in place. Certainly there were those, like Hisoka's father, that relished the power that being a Main House member gave them, but mostly it was a silent agreement that moved smoothly, seamlessly and without undue notice. If it had not been for the seals upon their foreheads TenTen would find herself hard pressed to identify whom was Main and whom was Branch.

TenTen had already run into Hisoka's father's prejudice tendencies when he had spoke with her about his son's training. He had insisted that TenTen use the same techniques that she had used to 'train' Neji. It the time TenTen hadn't realized that most of the lower members of the Main House Hyuuga felt that Neji's success was due to her direct influence, of course the Branch House believed that it was simply Neji being a genius prodigy. Little did they know that if Tsunade-sama was correct about TenTen's 'inner sight' abilities, it was probably a little bit of both.

"Yes, he'll be fine," TenTen confirmed for Hisoka's mother, not liking to have to agree with anything the older man said out of principal.

"Just don't let him use his Byakugan for a few days no matter what he says," TenTen said out loud to Hisoka's mother whom she had found to be both reasonable and fair despite her husband's bias.

"But, Sensei-sama?" Hisoka complained. The boy looked to be asleep on his feet. He had yet to open his eyes where he wobbled on weak legs. Of course it was also probable that he couldn't open his eyes after what they had put themselves through this afternoon.

"Listen to your Sensei, Hisoka," Neji interjected with authority.

At the sound of his voice, Hisoka's eyes snapped open in a glare. Hyuuga eyes did not get 'bloodshot' like regular eyes, but instead would 'bruise'. The ten year old's once white eyes were now a patched work of light lavender and deeper purples where his irises should have been. Not understanding Hisoka's sudden adverse reaction to Neji, TenTen came to her feet shakily and stood between the two Hyuuga.

"I will see you next week, Hisoka," TenTen reminded her student.

The boy looked over TenTen's shoulder and his glare narrowed as Neji stepped up closer to her from behind. Hisoka seemed like he was about to argue, but then his mother placed a pacifying hand on her son's shoulder and the young Hyuuga instantly wilted and nodded his acceptance of his sensei's words.

TenTen and Neji made no move to follow the family. As they stood there, TenTen watched sadly as Hisoka's father moved briskly ahead, heedless of his wife and son's struggle to keep up. She knew that the majority of Hyuuga marriages were arranged, but to have so little regard for one's wife and son chilled TenTen's soul.

How would Neji see their child, should he choose to have one?

When they were younger, the Hyuuga prodigy had expressed a desire to not bring a child into the world only to have it shackled to the will of the Main Branch. Remembering the conversation she had heard between the two Hyuuga elders before her wedding, TenTen knew that the leaders of the clan were happily anticipating Neji's children, but would they go so far as to order Neji to produce progeny for them?

Knowing her ex-teammate's hate of the Main Branch's rule, TenTen feared such a command would translate to bitterness towards herself and any child she would give him, like the bitterness she saw in Hisoka's father's eyes when he looked at his son that would never be as great as a Branch House member.

Curious to know what Neji thought of the family that was still making their way to the compound's main gate, TenTen glanced over to her husband and was startled to see Neji regarding her with intense scrutiny. Again TenTen was struck with how perfectly flawless the Hyuuga in front of her appeared in moonlight. Before she knew what she was doing, TenTen reached up and placed her palm against his cheek for the very first time.

She was amazed to find his skin was not cold like the white marble it resembled, but warm and inviting and TenTen was captivated by it. How many times had she wanted to touch Neji like this and never dared?

"You got carried away?" Neji asked softly in such a way that made it a statement more than a question, and TenTen could only nod in acknowledgment, too entranced by the movement of his jaw and the vibrations of his voice under her fingertips.

"You are exhausted."

Again TenTen could only nod at the true statement as she slid her hand down his face to rest against Neji's throat so that she could more fully feel the words so quietly spoken. His face was too beautiful for her eyes tonight, so TenTen choose to focus on the pulse point throbbing under her fingers.

Her husband was speaking again but sound passed through her ears without her understanding. Each word he uttered became deeper, quieter, but somehow more powerful, drawing TenTen towards him like a magnet. When she was close enough to almost be pressed chest to chest with her husband, Neji's ramblings faltered with a stutter, slicing a bit of awareness into TenTen's world of sensation.

"...we could train together..."

Pain and anger cut through her. Was she worth nothing else? Was that all he saw, all he wanted, when he looked at her, a training partner? But then again, it wasn't like Neji was alone in his opinion.

Naruto hadn't spared her a second look when she had been standing in front of him in just his dress shirt and silk boxers. Kiba had thumped her roughly on her back and barked amused laughter as she had sat astride him, telling her how like 'one of the guys' she was. Although Shikamaru had been her 'husband' during that mission and was affectionate to a degree, he certainly didn't entertain any impure thoughts about her.

If it had not been for Kankurou, TenTen would have believed that she had no appeal to the opposite sex at all. Of course the Suna Puppet Master had a well earned reputation for liking all manner of women, as frequently and as often as he could manage. TenTen may have been one in a long list of 'conquests', but at least she had been on someone's list.

Vexed that Neji continued to speak of 'schedules', 'training' and her genin squad for Kami's sake, TenTen stepped in even closer until there was no space between them. The Weapons Mistress slid her hand to the back of her husband's neck and then moved it down along his spine. When the Hyuuga choked into silence mid sentence, TenTen wasn't sure if it was her teeth, lips and tongue on the pulse of his throat or her fingers making circles against his blind spot that caused the reaction.

For a fleeting moment TenTen realized that seducing her husband was less nerve-racking than she thought it would be. It felt more natural, more instinctual, than her time with Kankurou had been. The Kazekage's brother had taught her many things, or more accurately, let her practice the things she had learned as a kunoichi but never given the opportunity to use either professionally or privately before. It had been mutually beneficial and pleasurable, but none of the things she and Kankurou had done had felt half as intoxicating as Neji's hands on her hips and his throat at her mercy.

TenTen couldn't tell if her husband's thumbs were using her belt loops to try to push her away or if his fingers were pressing into her rear-end to pull her closer. But the action did serve to tilt her pelvis in such a way that made it clear that Neji was far from unaffected by his wife. TenTen was moving kisses up the column of Neji's neck and had made it to his jawline when her husband made a pained noise and tried to pull away from her, but TenTen wasn't going to let him.

She bit Neji's jaw with enough force to distract him, but not enough to leave a mark as she used her free hand to unfasten the dark skirting material from around Neji's waist. TenTen was press tight enough to her husband to keep the clothing from falling to the floor and alerting Neji of her actions. Her distraction of sharp nips up to the Hyuuga prodigy's ear was still working, so TenTen moved to the next step.

One hand went up to unfasten the bottom button of Neji's shirt, the other hand slid back up her victim's back, across his throat under her own chin and then swiftly unbuttoned the top fastening of the shirt. Once the top and bottom of the material was undone, both hands made quick work of the third button in the middle.

Neji's grip was tight enough to bruise her hips, his back and neck were arching and TenTen took it all as a good sign that she was succeeding in her seduction. Very pleased with herself, TenTen made her last move. With a seamless motion, TenTen stepped back enough for the skirt material to fall to the ground, she strained on tiptoe so her teeth would finally reach Neji's ear, and she laid her palms flat against his chest, her fingers over his nipples caress them with teasing circles.

A wall suddenly being slammed into her back forced enough awareness into her to realize that at some point Neji must have transported them to their room using whatever jutsu that the ANBU were taught. TenTen was able to focus enough to notice that Neji had ripped the belt loops completely from her pants. The small scraps of canvas were trapped between Neji's hands and her face as he held her steady and took complete control by kissing her.

It only took a moment for TenTen to discover that Neji was very, very good at kissing, and he was also overwhelming her completely. She knew that part of it was her bones-deep exhaustion, and part of it was lack of readily available oxygen as neither of them were coming up for air, but the majority was the heady knowledge that NEJI was kissing HER.

She may have started it, and guiltily TenTen had to admit, she may have pushed him into it, but Hyuuga Neji's nearly legendary control had finally broken. This was not the angry, closed off boy she had grown up with. This was not the distant and stoic man she had come to know and watched from afar. This wasn't even the polished and reserved Hyuuga that most of the village got to see. This was a Neji that TenTen had never seen before.

As dark spots started to float behind her closed eyes, Neji pulled back. His hands were griping and releasing her bare shoulders as if trying to let go and unable to do so. TenTen didn't know when it had happened but her vest and his shirt had gone missing, and if Neji took in a deep breath she was sure his loosened pants would lose their fight with gravity and slide off of his hips to the floor. It wasn't until TenTen had taken in several steadying droughts of air that she realized that Neji was speaking to her.

"If we do this there cannot be an annulment," Neji informed her.

TenTen's deep breaths instantly turned rapid and shallow as pain gripped her heart.

Apparently Neji's control was more in-tacked than she realized, or maybe she just lacked the ability to arouse his passions enough to make him forget himself, even for one night. That he could even think to bring something up like that while they were...

TenTen actually choked with the nausea rolling up her throat as her heart broke in two. That was it then, Neji didn't want her. But even as the thought occurred to TenTen she remembered how he had felt against her just moments ago. She hadn't imagine his erection or his ardor, so he at least desired her. So there had to be something else he found so distasteful about her that he wanted to leave open the possibility of annulling their marriage. Maybe it disgusted him that she had taken the initiative.

TenTen whipped her head to the side unable to take Neji's searching gaze. The only light in their room was the moonlight filtering in through the sheer curtains, but it was enough for TenTen to see the walls blur through her tears. She had shot for the moon ... and missed.

"Ok," she choked out, clearing her throat around the lump lodged there.

With as much pride as she could manage, TenTen gathered the unraveled outer layers of her breast bindings to keep the wrappings from uncoiling completely. She moved to pass by Neji and hopefully make it to the bathroom before she started crying, but her reluctant spouse grabbed her upper arm stopping her.

"TenTen I did not mean... TenTen?"

The only thing keeping her from hitting the floor when she started to lose consciousness was Neji's hold on her arm. Just before all the blackening spots came together to completely obscure her vision, TenTen saw Neji's face and couldn't quite place the look in his white eyes, but then again she had never been able to read what went on behind those eyes anyway.

-

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I thrive on constructive criticism and cookies, not flames.

Kat

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This chapter's song, TenTen

**Merril Bainbridge -**** Spinning**

My sentiment will bore you senseles I know

But, I've got to tell you something

I want to be a satellite to your world

Spinning in the universe

When all the pleasures in heaven are yours

You can take what you want from me,

You got me spinning around you

You got me spinning around you

Look at me

I'm a bony bit of skinny confidence

But, that might be my photograph

From the top of the highest peak you can watch, me

Spinning in the universe

When all the pleasures in heaven are yours

You can take what you want from me

You got me spinning around you

You got me spinning around you

My sentiment still bores you senseless I know

But, I've got to show you something I found

Here's a photo of an astronaut

And there's you, and me, spinning in the background

Ten million ways I've tried to get into heaven

But, they, always chase me out again

And god says I'm wasting my time

And he knows, I haven't got a lot of time

When all the pleasures in heaven are yours

You can take what you want from me

You got me spinning around you

You got me spinning around you

You got me spinning around you

You got me spinning around you


	5. Chapter 5 of 5

A Naruto Fanfiction

One Last Gift

5/5

By Paperkat

08/22/10

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor am I making money from this fanfiction.

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If you guys are curious, I have written a Shikamaru/TenTen side story about their mission together called, 'Can't Take You Anywhere'. It shouldn't contain any information you would need to understand this story.

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I can't believe it's been almost a year since I updated! This chapter has been sitting on my hard drive forever waiting for me to figure out how to end this story that was started as a one shot with no clear plot in mind. I hope you like it, and hopefully I will find the inspiration needed to work on a sequel (or two!)

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The moment Neji felt his wife's body go lifeless, any residual lust generated moments before evaporated. The hold he had on TenTen's arm was a bad one, and with the way his grip had tightened as she fell away from him there were sure to be bruises by morning. Neji adjusted his hold and pulled TenTen into his arms. He vividly remembered each and every time he had held this woman in his arms, and not one of them was yet to his liking.

Neji walked cautiously to their bed, with his unfastened pants threatening to drop to his ankles at any second, and TenTen's partially unraveled chest wrappings causing a tripping hazard, Neji did not want to add an incidental fall to the evening's events by moving too quickly.

When Neji had first located TenTen after Hisoka's parents had come looking for their son after the child had failed to return home, Neji had noted TenTen atypical low chakra levels and over used pathways. It was a rare thing it 'see' her like that, as TenTen always erred on the side of caution, never depleting herself outside of a live-or-death situation in case she ever needed to have her teammate's back, but right now it was even worse. Neji could not sense the faintest trace of charka. He activated his Byakugan and a quick scan of his wife confirmed her now chakra-less condition.

Chakra existed in all living things, but only the most highly developed Byakugan could detect it when it was untapped, as in civilians, most animals or plant life. Even he, a prodigy of his clan could only see the faintest traces of this dormant power and only if he focused all his attention on a single subject. It was a function of the Byakugan that was not terribly useful when you were less worried about the tree and more concerned about the deadly shinobi hiding behind it.

Years of training kept the panic at bay as Neji calmly felt for TenTen's pulse, reassuring himself that his wife was still very much alive even though his supposedly superior eyes told him that a lifeless corpse lay before him. To his bloodline limit, TenTen had no more life than the bed she lay on. Neji let his mundane sight take over, reassured that he could easily see, in true color, the shallow rise and fall of TenTen's chest.

When TenTen had not shown for dinner, Neji had not been overly concerned, after all she was a Jounin and had even been under consideration for ANBU, but he had been... disheartened. He had spent the afternoon rehearsing what he would say to her, how he would broach the subject of them sparring again so that he could start getting close to her like they had been in their genin days.

In all his nineteen years and with all that he had seen and been through, succumbing to teenaged angst over the state of his heart had not been a scenario that he had factored in for himself. Neji knew that he had not fooled anyone earlier this evening when he had volunteered to help Hisoka's parents locate the boy, and ergo his wife. It had simply been the excuse he had used to escape the Main House family's drawing room and the silent, and possibly pitying, stares of his cousins and uncle.

Giving in to the need to be closer, to assure himself that TenTen was alive, Neji slipped onto the bed next to her. His body was parallel to hers and looming such that he was leaning over her but not actually touching. Neji was supporting the weight of his upper body on his left elbow while his left hand slid under his wife's neck, his right hand busied itself freeing the rest of TenTen's hair from its partially unraveled buns.

As he worked, Neji was relieved to see the gradual return of normal color to TenTen's cheeks and hear the soft sighs that eased the pained sorrow from her features. Her head unconsciously rocked in concert with his fingers messaging her neck. This was not the first time Neji had been forced to unwind TenTen's hair for her because she was unable to do so for herself. Since he was the only other member of Team Gai that had long hair, it had understandably always fallen to him to oversee that particular aspect of TenTen's care when the kunoichi had been incapacitated. Not that he had ever complained, not even the first time with his cheeks burning with preteen embarrassment.

Neji had been accused on more than one occasion of being indifferent and hard, and he did not deny that he could be to those that he did not care about. Even to those that knew him, he had the reputation of being cool and aloof, but when he had seen TenTen's face crumble, when he witnessed the heartbreak deep within her unguarded eyes in the moments before she had passed out, Neji had felt his world fall apart.

Every word he said to TenTen tonight replayed in his head. From his greeting that was gruff with concern, to his structured and scripted speech about them spending time together sparing. Neji remembered gamely plunging forward and hiding his disappointment that even though she had been touching him it had been clear that his wife was not paying him much attention. He had been committed to finishing his pre-rehearsed speech, but then TenTen's mouth had done things that he was only just starting to allow himself to dream about, Neji's original intentions had been completely derailed.

All rational thought and control had drained out of him leaving a creature of pure sensation and need. Self awareness only made a slight return when he had realized he had transported them to their room and they were both most of the way to being unclothed. Neji remembered finally regaining his wits enough to warn TenTen that if they carried on a moment longer he would not be able to stop himself and the option of his wife annulling their marriage would be lost to her.

It had physically pained him to pull away from her when all he had wanted was to be closer. He had awaited her decision, his heart painfully tight in his chest fearing that her rejection had been forthcoming, but that selfish indulgence of self pity was nothing compared to the devastation he saw in his wife's eyes at his apparent rejection. By the time Neji realized that the thought of annulling their marriage had never crossed TenTen's mind, it was too late to take the words back. The one person in this world he could not bare to see in pain had been falling apart in front of him, because of him, and his unfortunate words.

"Neji?"

At the sound of his name, Neji refocus from watching his fingers massaging TenTen's scalp to his wife's ladened and dark rimmed eyes. In that moment he hated himself for the weakness in his character that rejoiced at the open, hopeful and longing look his wife gave him. He wanted ... no, he needed to correct TenTen's misconceptions, but he had made quite a mess of things already and fumbling through an explanation when TenTen herself was too exhausted to even move would most likely only make things worse.

"Shhh, you need to rest," Neji intreated as he increased the pressure of his massage and added a caress to the nape of TenTen's neck with his other hand hoping to at lease physically show her how he felt knowing words were inadequate no matter how well they were crafted.

For a moment it seemed that she was going to comply with his request but after her eyes drifted closed again, Neji watched as tears leaked through her lashes.

"Please stop," TenTen choked out in a whisper. "It's just going to make it harder when you..."

TenTen abruptly cut herself short, her eyes squeezing tighter as if bracing for a blow she believed he would deliver to her heart. Neji paused only briefly, letting her distress washing over him before resuming his massage at her neck and hairline.

"No," Neji told her simply, coming to the realization that TenTen's confusion at his intentions most likely stemmed from his uncharacteristic indirect behavior as of late.

He watched as confusion wrinkled her forehead in a way that had become familiar to him in childhood. He waited until TenTen opened her eyes, the question 'Why' clearly written there.

"I will not stop, not today, not ever," Neji told her, holding her gaze and hoping that TenTen could see the sincerity that he felt. Hoping that she could hear the truth in what he had not said.

Neji could see words forming in his wife's unguarded eyes, but before she could voice them the door to their room was very quickly, if not quietly thrown open.

"Neji-nisama?"

Neji would have been angry at his cousin's abrupt entry into his private room if it were not for the sincere worry etched across her horrified face, however he could be upset for the obvious reason behind Hinata's panic. His cousin was holding back another outburst with her trembling hand, but tears were traveling along the lines of her activated Byakugan before falling down the far sides of her cheeks as she stared at TenTen.

Although a part of him, admittedly a childish part, wanted to draw out Hinata's anxiety to teach her a lesson about 'eaves dropping' with her bloodline limit, but the real pain the Hyuuga heir displayed at TenTen's supposed death was too touching for Neji to let it carry on more than a few moments.

"She is fine, Hinata-sama," Neji assured his cousin as he turned back to look at his wife to find that she had unsurprisingly fallen back into unconsciousness.

"But they said she had used too much chakra, and Shikamaru-kun said that she was dying he could feel feel it, and he looked so terrible I had believe him, and then when I... when I..."

Hinata could not finish her sentence as half-choked sobs stole her words. Not that she had made much sense thus far. When Neji turned back to his cousin to have her explain herself, Neji found Temari supporting a very pale, very wane Nara Shikamaru just inside the doorway. The ANBU captain was clutching at his chest with his free hand and his breathing was unnaturally fast and shallow. Neji was so focused on Shikamaru that he did not notice his other visitor until she spoke.

"Well, it looks like that experimental jutsu you bravely and stupidly used not only responds to physical pain and stress but emotional as well," the Fifth Hokage snorted, her hands glowing green where she was touching her top ANBU's back.

"Great..." Shikamaru panted weakly, his seemingly indifferent eyes staring fixedly at TenTen, as if he could not look away. "Now every time they have I fight, I have a stroke."

"Then you better hope he's a better husband than you're a boyfriend or you're going to be spending a lot of time in the hospital," Temari joked lightly, though her own expression showed her concern.

Without asking permission, the Sand-nin helped her lover sit at the foot of the bed closest to TenTen's feet. Before Neji could protest, Shikamaru place his hand on the unconscious woman's ankle, chakra flowed out of the Shadow Wielder and into the Weapon's Mistress as if it had belonged there in the first place.

Instead of the loss of life force draining Shikamaru, it seemed to help him, allowing the Nara to draw in a deep breath. Though he was relieved to feel TenTen's own breathing deepen to a more natural pattern, it irked him to acknowledge that it was his Captain's chakra that his wife's body had reacted so hungrily to.

"I do not care whom does it, but someone is going to explain to me what is going on, and they are going to do it now," Neji demanded.

An explanation was forth coming, though it came in fits and spurts as Shikamaru began the tale only to have Temari interrupt to add embellishment for the sections that she felt her boyfriend had left too vague or boring. The fact that the explanation involved TenTen and Shikamaru's mission together was not altogether a surprise.

"So you are telling me that now because of this jutsu, you and my wife," Neji paused to put emphasis on his relation to TenTen, "are permanently connected to each other."

"It's more like TenTen's his parasitic twin with an alarm system."

"Temari," Shikamaru growled in annoyance, as if this was not the first time she had teased him.

"Look, if I gotta share ya with someone, I'd rather it be her than that blonde b..."

"Temari!"

"I was going to say 'bombshell'. I was going to say 'bombshell'."

"Sure you were."

During the story telling, Hinata had left long enough to inform her father what was happening before returning with the Hyuuga leader in tow. Now his cousin was perched on one corner of the bed with a disgustingly dreamy smile as if she found all this terribly romantic, while his uncle looked on stoically, as of yet, offering no comment. Lady Tsunade had not said a word either, apparently ignoring all of them in favor of looking after her patient. After Neji had demanded his answers, the Hokage had chased him out of the bed so that she could more effectively tend to TenTen.

"Well, I have good and bad news," Tsunade-sama announced as she drew the covers up to TenTen's chin.

"And the bad new is..." Shikamaru prompted obviously weary of all the excitement and attention.

"Your chakra has been harmonized with TenTen's. In effect, the two of you are now as if you were alway, as Temari stated earlier, twins, and it's permanent."

Neji noticed Haishi-sama's eyes lose there unaffected glaze, and for a moment he swore he saw regret.

"Congratulations," Temari chirped with a smirk,"you just became a little brother."

"And the good news?" Hinata cut in before a lovers' quarrel could get started.

"I've made it so that the connection now flows both ways," Lady Tsunade told them crossing her arms and setting her shoulders seemingly preparing for a fight.

"Meaning she'll now feel the Nara's pain?" Neji questioned, realizing the implications immediately.

"Change it back," the Shikamaru demanded. "It's pointless for both of us to be stuck like this.

Although Neji was not enamored with the idea of TenTen being physically linked with his commanding officer like his cousin seemed to be judging by the goofy smile she was wearing, Neji was pleased that Shikamaru's first thought was for TenTen's well being.

"No, it's better this way," Tsunade-sama informed them with authority. "I know you haven't admitted it, Shikamaru, but when you have been away from TenTen you can feel your chakra draining from you, reaching out to find her. You've been lucky so far that something like this hasn't happened while you were out on a mission. As it was, I knew that I couldn't send the both of you out on missions at the same time, because that experimental jutsu would have always chosen TenTen's life over yours, and you know that."

When Shikamaru cut his eyes away and refused to comment, Neji knew that the Hokage spoke true. The smile slipped from Temari's face and she gave her lover an accusatory glare.

"You didn't tell me that."

"There's nothing to tell," Shikamaru softly defended. "There wouldn't be an assignment conflict because she accepted a nice quiet genin squad assignment."

"Yes, a Konoha genin squad. Always known to be safe and trouble free for the instructors," Lady Tsunade said pointedly as she openly stared at the bladed knuckles that were always strapped to Shikamaru's hip.

The Nara's only acknowledgment of the female Hokage's words was a clenching of his jaw.

"If the connection is as if they were true twins," Lord Hiashi said softly into the ensuing silence, "then the only suffering they would endure is the inability to affect the other when they are fully aware that the other is in danger."

Neji was not sure how much Shikamaru and Temari knew of the Hyuuga clan history, but he and Hinata were intimately aware of all the dark secrets between their fathers. This was the first time Neji had known his uncle to admit such tender emotion in front of anyone. Even if it was only in mild and vague references to being a twin himself.

"Unless the chakra connection between twins is knowingly fostered and encouraged to grow it will never go beyond a slight awareness in the back of their consciousness, in the same way one knows that someone is watching them, and when it is gone there is just yawning silence. Am I correct, Tsunade-sama?"

The Fifth Hokage kindly smiled and nodded her head in agreement.

"So if before now that jutsu only worked in one direction, from Shikamaru-kun to TenTen-san, why was she so drained of chakra to begin with?" Hinata reasoned aloud, earning her a pleased smile from her father for her clear and present thinking.

"Yes, is there reason to be concerned for my new niece's health?" Lord Hiashi questioned for himself.

"That information is presently classified," Lady Tsunade told them briskly.

"Even to her husband?" Neji demanded to know, coming to stand directly in the Hokage's line of sight.

"Until this evening it wasn't known if there was anything to be classified, but now that I've had confirmation from Kakashi that the Fourth Hokage's findings were indeed correct, this matter is a need-to-know situation."

Even though he narrowed his eyes in anger at their Hokage's dismissal, Neji saw Shikamaru open his mouth to argue. Undoubtedly wanting to remind Lady Tsunade that as her top ANBU there was nothing that was classified above his rank.

"You will be briefed in the morning once you have regained your strength," Tsunade-sama corrected swiftly before addressing the Hyuuga lord directly.

"In regards to this matter I am requesting all of your brother's field notebooks and mission logs. I believe they were allowed to remain at his home instead of being stored at the tower after his death?"

"This is correct, Hokage-sama," Hiashi-sama confirmed without betraying any of his thoughts on the situation.

"Good, I want them to be delivered to my office by tomorrow morning. Although the Fourth had excellent records it's possible that your brother observed something working with Minato that will be useful," the only remaining Sannin told his uncle.

Finding out that his father had been involved with research concerning TenTen under the Fourth Hokage's direction was a shock to himself and Hinata, but Lord Hiashi did not seem surprised in the least.

"My brother's field notebooks and mission logs are yours to take as you please Hokage-sama."

Neji caught the way his uncle had worded that statement with precise clarification of what would be given to the ageless woman in front of him, and by the way Lady Tsunade smirked she seemed quite pleased that he had.

"Now that that has been done, I need to check up on TenTen's poor student. If she's in this shape I can't imagine how the child is."

Tsunade-sama wrapped a hand around Shikamaru's arm and manhandled him into an upright position and gave instructions to Temari to take care of the protesting Shadow-nin. She then turned to Hinata and told her to keep a watch on TenTen and alert her if the Weapon's Mistress's chakra did not steadily rise over the next few hours. With a final long appraisal of Neji which she ended with an encouraging smile, the Fifth Hokage walked out the door helping to drag her reluctant ANBU Captain with her.

"Come with me Neji," Hiashi-sama commanded as his left the room following the Hokage's wake.

Neji paused to not only retrieve his shirt that was still laying on the floor where TenTen had pushed it off his shoulders, but to assure himself that his wife was well taken care of in his absence. Hinata's Byakugan was active as she watched TenTen sleep, the other kunoichi's weapon toughened hand in her own. Hinata looked up briefly to give Neji a warm smile before returning to the task the Hokage did not have to order her to do.

Neji was fully dressed by the time he caught up with the Hyuuga leader as the older man progressed through the compound. There was really only one place Neji's father's field notebooks and mission logs would be stored and that would be the clan archive. The archive was in a well guarded room within the clan's library, only the archivist and the current clan leader were allowed to enter, but much to the astonishment of the guards and Neji himself, when Neji and his uncle arrived at the doors, Hiashi-sama summoned him to enter.

The room was unremarkable. Floor to celling shelves in multiple rows, populated with locked cabinet like doors, each half a meter by half a meter in size. There seemed to be a numbering system and a filing system in the middle of the room, but Hiashi-sama did not seem to need either. He walked with assurance to a box three rows in and to the left. His uncle drew a key from around his neck, the leather cord shiny and smooth with constant ware against skin.

The box he opened was slightly lower than waist height, and when the door swung wide, Neji had a clear view of its entire contents. There were a few scrolls of a pictorial nature as indicated by the small plaques on them. A single childhood toy, a colorful spinning top, lay to the one side, and beside it two stacks of leather bound books. Of the items in the box, only the toy and the smaller stack of books had no evidence of dust.

Lord Hiashi picked up first the stack of journals that were dusted a faint gray and swiftly deposited them into Neji's surprised arms, the next stack his uncle lifted carefully from there resting place and laid the clean, maroon colored, soft covered books on top of the pile already in his hands.

"These should be what the Hokage is looking for, but review them all to make sure that only the field notebooks and mission logs are given," Lord Hiashi instructed as he turned away to re-lock the cabinet door. "I will log out the journals to the Hokage's care."

At his uncles obvious dismissal, Neji bowed slightly and exited the room. The guards turned towards him to detain him, but Hiashi-sama's voice from within the archive stopped them. Without looking back, Neji made a swift retreat to his room. Now more than ever he was convinced that there was something both the Hokage and his uncle wanted him to know that they could not tell him themselves.

When Neji entered his room he immediately noticed that Hinata had placed TenTen in her sleeping attire and had braided her new cousin's hair into a long plait over TenTen's shoulder. His cousin looked up at his entry but made no comment, her Byakugan still active and monitoring TenTen's chakra.

Neji only responded with a nod, before making his way to the table. He set down the stack he carried but he immediately separated the books into their obvious types. The journals that had been covered in dust, even inside the locked cabinet, were stiff with disuse and contained brief and to the point descriptions of missions in precise neat handwriting. The other stack was the exact opposite.

While it was clear that the same person, his father, wrote both sets, the second group was worn and well taken care of. Instead of a pen, these journals were in ink and brush, and did not seem to have a set style of writing. There were one line entries, poems and songs, and even small drawings. As Neji flipped through, he noticed that his father had stuffed photographs in-between some of the pages.

Neji did not realize that his father had kept a diary, because it was immediately apparent that this is what these journals were. Age wise, both stacks of books appeared to go back to the start of his father's genin squad, but the mission journals stopped approximately a year after Neji's birth, while the diaries ended on the night of his father's death.

Where to start?

The obvious answer was 'the beginning', but what beginning? Again the answer was transparent, TenTen's beginning. Neji went through the mission journals focusing on the year and month of his wife's birth, however he was surprised to find a record on the exact date.

_March 9 - I have been assigned a task by the Fourth Hokage to assess and secure a target of personal interest to Minato-sama. This will fall outside of my regular duties and assignments, and holds first priority at moments of conflicting interest._

The entry was brief and held no pertinent information. Having TenTen be coldly labeled as a 'target' to be assessed and secured made Neji's stomach feel like lead. Knowing that there had to be more than just this, Neji went to his father's diary and found not only a corresponding entry, but a photo as well.

The picture showed his father in traditional Hyuuga meditation robes rarely worn outside the compound, holding a bundled infant. His father smiled indulgently to the camera as if he were humoring the one taking the photo. On the back of the picture Neji found the date and TenTen's complete given birth name (a name Neji had only heard once at their wedding, and was the mouthful TenTen alway claimed it to be) written in a hand that was not his father's. The diary entry seemed to be hastily written but was clear and easy to read.

_March 9 - We almost did not make it to the hospital in time. Kenta was a mess, unable to even find his way around the halls without my help. I can only hope that I will not be so out of sorts once my own child arrives. As it is, I can understand why my friend is in this state. The birth was almost two months early, but more surprising than little TenTen's dramatic entrance was whom was waiting for us when we arrived at the hospital. How Kenta could have not noticed Minato-sama with his bright blonde hair and that hideous orange coat is a mystery to me, but my friend simply barged on by without a backwards glance, leaving me to deal with the Hokage myself. To think that Lord Minato had been anticipating my goddaughter's birth with almost as much anticipation as Kenta is incredible. I do not know if all that the Fourth said will actually come to pass, but I must admit there is something different about the girl. It is not obvious, and if I had not been specifically instructed on what to look for I would have missed it. For now I have been assigned the most pleasant assignment of 'keeping an eye' on little TenTen. Kenta refuses to call his baby that, but what other name would you give a child that giggles at birth. He may protest for now but we both know that I usually get my way. The only thing that is missing is Mei, but it is for the best, for I do not believe that I could share this moment with her and not break._

Confusion made Neji's head ache. Who was Mei and why did is father write about her with such emotion? Kenta's name Neji recognized from the betrothal and marriage documents, but he had not realized his wife's father and his own were so close, and had been close for what sounded like a long time. Neji never remembered his father mentioning Kenta by name or this 'Mai', but his father had often referred to a friend from his genin squad. Neji now recalled those memories and viewed them with an adult's eye and through the lens of this new information.

Neji now realized that his father had always spoken of his friend and his genin squad with not only pride and happiness but with pain and longing. As a child, he had never understood why his father did not wish to talk about his shinobi life more, since he seemed to have such fond memories. Now Neji wondered what had caused his father to so completely separate himself from his childhood friends. Though the question was burning in him to find out, his current mission was to find out more about his wife, not his father. Knowing that his father's assignment logs would have very little detail that he would find of interest, Neji opted to leaf through the dairies instead.

Over the next four months of entries, TenTen's name was peppered in with accounts of Hyuuga family life. Mostly it consisted of remarking on Neji's wife's rapid development despite her premature birth. It wasn't until he came to another entry marked with a photograph that Neji stopped to read carefully.

_July 10 - I have finally managed to sneak Neji out of the compound. It is nice to know that my ninja skills have not completely deteriorated with all the D and C class missions Hiashi has limited me to. Kenta was inordinately pleased with Neji. He seemed quite relived that his godson was not a 'girly' Hyuuga, but was disappointed that my son was displeased with being tossed around. I do not believe that Kenta realizes that Neji is only a week old and can not yet tolerate the rough handling that his own TenTen has come to crave. It also appears that Kenta has been working on having TenTen say my name. My only hope is that she will grow out of calling me ZaZa at some point. My goddaughter did not seem as impressed by Neji as her father. She was, however, distressed when he cried out, patting my arm repeatedly until I got him to quiet down. She also did not seem to have a problem sharing her crib with him. Kenta joked that he should demand that we draw up betrothal paper now that our children have slept together. I do not think my friend realizes how much it pains me to even consider doing that to my own son. I have no doubt Kenta will raise his daughter to be a fine woman, but the choice of marriage should be our children's not our own._

The picture tucked in with the entry was of two children in the same bed. One was an infant only a week old sleeping on his back, and the other, a four month old toddler sitting with her hand on the black fuzzy fluff on the boy's head and her thumb lodged firmly in her mouth.

Neji had to put down the dairy to process what he had read. His father had not wanted to betroth him. Then how did the betrothal come about? Neji suddenly had a sobering thought. What if the betrothal was a fake? No one had seemed to know about it until just a few months ago. How could that be possible in a clan like the Hyuuga? Could it be all a lie? To what end?

The obvious answer was that the Main Branch wanted his children, but he had seen the documents, and though it was not impossible to fake them, Neji had been trained in identifying forgeries from originals. Even though the betrothal was sloppy and hastily put together (something that the Main Branch would not have allowed) it was authentic, he was sure of it.

Then why had his father changed his mind at the last minute, signing his son's future away in the hours before his death? Neji hoped to find the answer in his father's diary.

"Neji-nisama?"

Neji looked up to find his cousin hovering in the doorway.

"TenTen-san will be fine. Her chakra is building smoothly, but if you want me to..."

"That is alright, Hinata-sama," Neji looked over to his sleeping wife before adding, "I thank you for your help."

He thought that his cousin would take his words as the dismissal they were, but when he looked back, she still hovered in the doorway picking absently at an invisible splinter in the door frame.

"Is there something else?" he asked.

"You know that I would have never... I mean to say that, I did not mean to see...If Lady Tsunade had not..."

"It is alright," Neji assured her when he realized Hinata was trying to apologize for using her Byakugan to see into his bedroom. "Just do not do it again."

"I won't," she started then amended, "That is, unless I need to. Not that I think that I will need to," Hinata hastily added, her blush turning redder by the moment, "but I do not want to say that I will not if I have to because..."

"I think I understand," Neji told her with a smile that his cousin returned.

"Good... I mean thank you, and good night."

Hinata slid the door shut behind her when she left, leaving Neji to continue his search. In retrospect it probably would have been a good idea to have had his cousin help. Hinata was a much faster reader than he was, and a task shared was a job halved, but it did not feel right allowing others to read his father's dairies even though it appeared that someone had been reading them recently if the lack of dust was any indication.

Neji flipped through the pages, looking for any mention of TenTen's or her father's name. He had not found any in the months directing following the last entry he had read, but a page that had been ripped from the book and then placed back in caught his attention.

_Nov 29 - I did not even know that Mia was pregnant let alone that she is now a mother. Other than his black hair he looks nothing like Mia. As much as I want to hate the boy, I cannot. Because part of him is her. However, I can hate the Elders for him not being mine and for Neji not being hers._

It seemed to Neji that he had found the reason for his father's intense dislike for betrothals. He had never been under the illusion that his parents were a love match, and other than when his father's body had been brought back home, Neji could not remember spending an entire day with his mother. Neji again wonder who this woman was that his father had lost.

Neji resumed his search, finding references to TenTen's early childhood through the eyes of his father. He read about her hair being put up into pigtails for the first time, and about the two of them as toddlers playing in mud and covering themselves so completely that his father had almost taken the wrong child home with him. There were even references to the Fourth Hokage making repeated appearances to reconfirm his early suspicions, but the references where alway vague. Finally Neji found a more substantial entry.

_July 30 - Minato-sama brought Kushina to see TenTen today. I am not sure if I have ever seen a Hokage so throughly browbeaten in my life. The poor man let it slip that he hoped to use TenTen's abilities to help strengthen the Nine-tails seal. The Hokage's wife yelled at her husband for using a child for his own gain, not giving him a chance to explain. It was quite amusing to see little TenTen come to the Fourth's defense, arguing with infant talk to the full grown pregnant woman that argued right back. In the end the two girls made friends. Lord Minato believes that the dirty fingerprints TenTen placed all over his wife's round stomach are an advanced fuinjutsu enhancement and Kushina agreed with him. Neither Kenta or I can see how an 13 month old could have that kind of ability, but the Fourth was quick to point out that she should not be able to summon objects without a foci either. He says that it is her tri-elemental affinity that not only gives her summoning, but also gives her the insight like an Uchiha but she is not limited to physical sight or time. Just as the Hokage has the ability to see hidden bloodlimits and special abilities even if they are not being used, TenTen can see untapped potential and techniques that have not even been thought of yet. He feels that soon he will need to start taking an active roll in TenTen's training, but he wants to wait until after his baby is born. Neither Kenta or I are looking forward to that day. Neither one of us are of a high enough skill level to participate in her training without raising questions the Hokage does not want asked just yet. If it was known that a child like TenTen existed, she would be hunted for the secret of her abilities like children that possess kekkei genkai. The longer my goddaughter remains a secret the safer she will be._

The more Neji read the more confused he became. His father wrote of abilities he had never seen TenTen display. While undoubtably her weapon scrolls were unique in their complexity, it was not a technique that was completely uncommon. Any ninja with half decent ninjutsu could hold equipment within a foci, but summoning something, anything, without one? It just was not possible and neither was a tri-elemental affinity, but his father spoke of both in direct reference to TenTen.

The only part of what Neji had read that rang true was TenTen's uncanny ability to know how to make a jutsu work, even if she could not perform the technique herself. He had spent years watching her give off hand comments and suggestions that always seem to be exactly what needed to be done. Oft times the receiver of her advice did not even realize that she had given them the key to their success. He himself had been blind to it until his uncle had pointed out that even if he was a prodigy he should have never progressed to his level and gained a unique jutsu.

Neji started furiously flipping through the journal. There had to be an explanation for the difference between what TenTen had been and what she had become. Had her abilities dwindled out after adolescence? Did the Fourth Hokage die before she could be trained and her powers atrophied? Why had no one continued to at least try and help her learn to use what she was born with?

Neji stopped at an entry written in an unsteady hand.

_Oct 11 - The Fourth Hokage is dead and with him any hope of TenTen learning to use her abilities. I was one of the few that saw saw Uzumaki Naruto when he was returned to the village and the seal that had been placed upon him, the seal that TenTen had helped Kushina and the Hokage create. I have foolishly made an oath to Minato-sama that I am honor bound to complete. When my goddaughter was born I promised the Hokage that I would do everything within my power to hide TenTen from the world if anything should happen to him. He feared that without his presence and protection, TenTen would be too tempting a target for another village to resist. Now I must go to that child that trusts me and take away her birthright. I must use that God forsaken jutsu that was taught only to me as the second born, lesser son. I must lock away TenTen's abilities by permanently blocking the extra chakra pathways she possesses. After I am done I can never see her or Kenta again. I know my friend understands the gravity of what is about to happen, but I will never forgive myself for what I am about to do._

His father had been the one, his father had been the reason TenTen appeared to be a regular shinobi. The pieces were clicking together one by one and Neji did not like the picture that was coming to light. Undoubtedly it was the information Neji had just read that the Hokage had been looking for. If it had been a Hyuuga technique that had sealed TenTen's abilities then they could be another that would release her.

But what would he, should he, do with this new information? Was it even new? Obviously someone had been reading his father's journals and the only ones with access where the archivist and his uncle.

Although one of Neji's questions had been answered the another one remained. How had he become betrothed to his wife? The remainder of the diary had few entries, only two held any interest. One spoke of his fathers ever growing disgust with his lot in life and the other told Neji quite plainly his answer.

_Aug 3 - I should not have gone to see her. Maybe if I had not gone I would not have lost my composure in front of Lord Hiashi, and Neji would not have witnessed my shame. All I wanted to do was to escape the clan for a little while, to remember what a life outside of this place was like. TenTen was alone in her yard, all her dolls tossed aside in favor of her wooden kunai and swords. She was exactly as the Fourth had predicted she would be and because of me she will never be anything more than a simple shinobi. If only the Nine Tail attack had not happened. If only Minato-sama had not died. Under the Fourth's tutelage she could have been as advanced as Hatake Kakashi by now. Instead she is being hidden away, like my son, while undeserving creatures like my niece are given every opportunity and privilege. I did not realize I had been seen by my goddaughter until I heard her call my name. She still remembers her ZaZa, but I did not answer her. I could not break the oath that I have made and I cannot face her. How I hate this place and what it is doing to me and Neji and TenTen, and there is no escape for any of us now._

_Nov 23 - I sit here and watch my son sleep and I wonder if he will ever forgive me. I have made two decisions; one that takes away power from my brother and the other from my Neji. Haishi does not yet know that I have agreed with the elders to take by brother's place, and until TenTen comes of age, Neji will not know that I have taken the choice of bride from him. I know that it is selfishness that has driven me to sacrifice myself to the Cloud ninja. I have decided to choose my own destiny even though I know that it will hurt the ones that I love most. In a way the second decision is just as selfish as the first. Betrothing Neji to TenTen will allow Kenta to have a say in my son's life. Even though I tricked Kenta into signing the papers I know he will honor them and he will look after Neji when I am gone. My friend is unlikely to remember our last night together due to the alcohol that I poured into him, but I cannot allow him to know what I am about to do. If TenTen is anything like her father and Neji wins her loyalty I know that she will never let him falter. I go now to my destiny and I can only hope that fate is kinder to my son than it has been to me._

Closing the diary Neji looked over to his wife. TenTen had moved onto her side facing him. Her face was more relaxed than it had been earlier and with her knees drawn up towards her chest she seemed so much younger than nineteen.

His father had betrothed him to TenTen in the hopes that her father, Kenta, would take care of him after his father's death and instead it had been his daughter that had saved him from himself.

Neji left the table, extinguished the only light in the room and made his way to the bed. He removed his shirt before slipping in behind his wife, moulding his larger body around TenTen, unsurprised that it was a perfect fit.

"Neji? Is that you?"

He smiled at the sleepy question before replying.

"Yes, it is me."

"Hmm, ok." She was still for moment and Neji thought that she might have fallen back to sleep, but instead she curled her fist into his hand in front of her before speaking again. "Ask your question."

"What makes you think I have a question?" Neji asked even though she was correct.

"I can hear it rattling around inside your head," she hummed, sounding more asleep than awake.

It warmed Neji's soul to hear TenTen return to a familiar banter they had enjoyed as children. On nights they had laid next to each other, her relaxing into sleep due to her complete trust in her sansei to protect her, and him wrestling with questions filled with anger and resentment keeping him awake, she would always make him ask those haunting questions. Even though she had rarely been able to answer them, mainly because they had been the kind of questions that could not be answered, Neji had released the responsibility of keeping them all inside by sharing them with her. This time, however, the question had the probability of causing her more pain than himself.

"TenTen tell me what happened to your father," Neji found himself asking as he stared over to the table and the pile of books there.

"My father?" TenTen asked sounding confused, but no more awake than before. When he nodded against her neck she sighed before answering.

"The night he left I remember him coming to my room and waking me up." She laughed softly then snuggling closer and bringing their joined hands into her chest. "He told me that my imaginary friend had gotten lost and he was going to bring him home with him. I don't know why he told me that. I hadn't thought of ZaZa in years.

Neji tightened his hold on TenTen, closing his eyes and waiting for the enevitable conclusion to his wife's story.

"In the morning when I woke up," TenTen continued, "my mother told me that he had gone on a solo mission to retrieve a missing ninja and that he had been badly injured. We went to the hospital, but he was in a coma. He never woke up. I remember how angry my mother was at him. Even years after he was gone she would yell at him for dying, for bring back a dead body instead of leaving it where he had found it. Why do you ask?"

"I'll tell you in the morning," Neji softly forced out, afraid that if he spoke any louder she would hear the emotion in his voice.

Her father had died, bring his father's copse back to his family. Neji remembered the larger man that had come to the Hyuuga compound, covered in blood that he had assumed at the time was his father's. Even though he had been too angry and grief stricken at the time to notice, that man had been the only one to express his condolences directly to Neji and he had been the only one his uncle had spoken to that night. Thanking him for his efforts.

Neji was not given long to reflect upon those old memories as TenTen scooted and wiggled until she was laying on her back looking over at him.

"I don't think I like this new Neji," she confessed, her droopy eyes trying to draw together in a scowl that had no heat.

"Is the 'new' Neji that much different than the old one?" he asked unable to keep the grin from his face at her pout.

"Yes", she said initially before frowning deeper, "and no."

Neji did laugh then, sweeping the bangs from her forehead so that he could place a kiss there.

"Spoken like a true Hyuuga," he told her, tracing her blushing cheekbone with his thumb.

"But I'm not a Hyuuga," she said looking away.

"No, you are not," Neji agreed, forcing TenTen's gaze back to his with gentle pressure to her chin. "Not yet anyway."

Neji could see that TenTen understood the silent question he asked. She smiled at him, using a hand at his shoulder to draw him closer to her.

"Not yet," she agreed, not sounding the least bit tired as she sealed her lips with his.

That night Neji claimed the last gift his father had given him.

The End

I thrive on constructive criticism and cookies, not flames.

Kat


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